


FLCL: Hybrid

by HyperSuda



Category: FLCL
Genre: Action, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Gen, Humor, Not Ship-Heavy, Surreal, Unofficial Sequel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-22
Updated: 2019-10-19
Packaged: 2020-07-10 18:31:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 31,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19910281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HyperSuda/pseuds/HyperSuda
Summary: 2 Years after Haruko leaves Mabase in search for Atomsk, Naota is settling back into his normal life, without any adventures, robots or giant pirate birds, only for it to all be undone as the girl on the vespa comes riding back into town.





	1. Re:Birth

**_BROOOOOOOOOOM!_ **

The usually docile, empty sounds of space were filled with the shaking metal of a bracelet and the audible bouncing of burning rubber as the tires of the Harukos vespa sizzled against Atomsks wings.

“Come on, come on, just a little _closer_ …” Haruko snarled through gritted teeth, The Pirate Kings assault of plasma-ridden fireballs only got more and more relentless. Though she had come closer to seizing his power than ever before, Atomsk himself still loomed so huge that his body was the only thing resembling a battleground in this fight.

**_BAM!_ **

Haruko bass-batted a blast away, shattering the flame into an array of small, fire-fly like dots that scattered through the visible reach of space, painting the two’s battle in a stylish blue glow.

It was this moment that she realized how badly she missed her Rickenbacker, in comparison to the sub-standard Yamaha she was using now. 

She swerved her vespa to the side before pressing its momentum down towards Atomsks flaming wing and bouncing up, becoming airborne as she felt the tires splutter and flicker with heat.

Sensing another fireball coming her way, Haruko tipped herself to the side, sending her vehicle spinning, defying gravity.

As the heat of the emerging flame ball alerted her senses, the girl began to use her own natural gravity to try and match the pirate kings incredible power, as Haruko used the momentum on her side to take control of her Vespa and bat away the fireball with that, causing even more flickers of blue to illuminate the area.

These were not just for show, however.

“Uh-oh.” Haruko said, as the small blips of cyan sailed past her head, swarming towards the light of Atomsks breast like moths to a lamp. Harukos eyes widened. The small flickers of flame began to cover Atomsk, almost like his own, glowing suit of armor, before they were absorbed into him with a flash of light.

Suddenly, Atomsks features began to turn blue, although it wasn’t as frost-bitten as normal color theory would indicate, no, his fiery will was burning hotter than ever before. He perched himself, towering over the girl below him even more than he already was, the energy that resided in him building and building towards release, igniting the whole sky with flickers of blue and red…

And he unleashed a massive beam of pure energy straight at Haruko.

**_RATTLERATTLERATTLERATTLERATTLE!_ **

If Harukos bracelet had been on the fritz before, it was nothing compared to the shaking that vibrated through its smooth metal now.

The intimidating, almost inevitable mass of plasma, roaring with its sheer power did little to phase the girl it was directed at, only causing her to grit her teeth harder, as she lifted herself onto her feet, the vespa that grounded her continued to hurdle towards inevitable doom.

With lighting speed, Haruko launched herself backward from her previous position, using the velocity from her jump to latch onto the backseat of the vespa and fling it upwards and send it soaring over the outpour of Atomsks power.

She skated along the bird’s stomach, digging her heels into the surface and causing a small patch of dust to form in front of her, although this did little to slow her down, as she continually slid towards the outpour of energy.

The blue tint began to shine brighter and brighter in Harukos direction, and it was almost like time itself was getting slower and slower. Haruko was not reflecting on any past decisions, her life was not flashing before her eyes, but the overwhelming wave of dread that accompanied the proverbial mountain in front of her was palpable.

She slipped back to reality with the sound of her own breath.

“…Guess I’m calling my shot.” The girl said to no one in particular, the vast void surrounding her only amplifying that.

She braced.

The blast continued to hurtle towards her.

She brandished the Yamaha.

The blast’s heat began to sting worse than it already was.

The two lines converged, as Haruko leapt towards the blast, almost being blown back by the wind and force that was being tunneled at her. She raised her weapon to the sky, taking in a deep breath, …

And in she went, swinging the weapon horizontally with all the force she could muster.

….

….

**_CRACK!_ **

Air started to rush out of the middle of the energy field, as the beam itself began tear at its already unstable seams, while Haruko continued to fly through the center of the attack, still recuperating from the kinetic waves rolling through her body. Her own figure was starting to blur at this point from how badly the blast had left her shaking, only for her after-image to cartoonishly crush the rest of her back to normal stability.

The excitement of conquering Atomsks blast had almost taken Harukos eyes off the prize, but she quickly recovered, trying to retain her flow by bracing her bass to the back of her, as she hurtled down towards Atomsk’s tummy.

“Is that all you’ve got, you big, dumb **bird**?!” She screamed with confidence, swinging the guitar back down to the surface of Atomsk’s stomach and launching herself upward again, quickly latching back on to her briefly-discard vespa.

Her foot made hard enough contact with the pedal to chip it, the engine reeving and speeding her directly towards her current foe, who’d once again returned to his deep red color pallet.

There was almost a sense of fear in Atomsk’s actions, as his weaving fire streams were easily dodged, Haruko leaving a slip-stream-like trail of pink and yellow in her wake. His attacks were sloppy and unaligned, skills weakened from years of little challenge, while Haruko had been waiting for this chance, waiting for the perfect opportunity to get _close enough_ …

For a split second, Haruko looked up and she saw it. She couldn’t tell if it was fear, sadness, fury or anything in-between…but it was acknowledgment, acknowledgment that she’d never gotten from the years she’d spent chasing him.

She reached her hand out, cat-like features glimmering curiously and cruelly in the bath of the red light. The warmth began to become hotter and hotter almost to burning point, but she didn’t care, _she was so close_ and it was addicting! She wanted nothing more than for this sensation to completely overtake her.

Her better instincts suggested that she should lay back, but she couldn’t. Maybe before, but not now, not now that the power of a god was _just_ away from her fingertips. Dismounting from her vespa once more, she raised the Yamaha up for a vertical swing…

**_“SCREEEEEEEEE-ONK!”_ **

Atomsk let out a mighty roar, the sheer pressurized wind sending Haruko flying back. Just as quickly as it had appeared, her cat-like be wonderment changed to Jackal-like fury.

“No you don’t…” She grunted, sending metallic chains cascading out of her bracelet, sticking into Atomsks flesh. Using the metal as a make-shift rope, Haruko swung back at Atomsk with vigor. The heat, she could feel it again… especially in her wrist?

The chains began to shatter as her opponent pumped his own scorching hot energy into them, cracking the metal down like peanut brittle and burning Haruko, but the smoldering of her wrist did little to deter her, the adrenaline pumping through the girl’s veins served to render the burn nothing more than skin-deep.

Chains expanded from the same bracelet once more, this time chaining Atomsks beak, something even the King himself did not seem to expect. In an uncharacteristically weak display, he tossed and turned to break the bars of captivity but even when heated, Haruko’s restraints would not budge.

Pulling herself up by the edge of the chain, Haruko athletically bounced off the edge of his beak and swung at his head. The guitar cut through what little atmosphere there was as pulsating winds flew from the sides of its slash.

Atomsk looked up, his eyes widened.

There it was, that was fear.

Harukos strike raced to its endpoint, moving as fast as it could to once and for all claim the pirate kings head for her own.

Atomsk closed his eyes.

At the time, Haruko was convinced that this was him kneeling over. A pathetic final stand from royalty now he’d been bested.

Then Atomsk exploded.

Haruko was sent flying back from the radius, the only things left being small sparks of red and orange flying up into the ground.

It took a few seconds for this to settle in to Haruko. Atomsk was there, Atomsk was now not there. She didn’t kill Atomsk, she doesn’t have the power. In all likelihood, Atomsk is still alive.

“Damn it, damn it, damn it, **FUCKING DAMN IT!** ” Haruko screamed, frustration loudly boiling over, her voice echoing on for last years.

The women’s attention became drawn to her wrist above anything else.

She waited.

She waited.

She waited.

“…Hurry up! **Where the hell is he?!** ” She screamed at her own wrist in futility, yanking and shaking it in various different positions, trying to get even the slightest read of Atomsk’s location. “Come on, come on, come on…come…on?”

Not even a sound.

“Ugh, great, stranded in space with nowhere to go. Not how I wanted this to go.” She murmured to herself, as she made her way over to the vespa floating through the air, mainly just so there was a spot where she could mope.

Sitting on the leather did little to cushion any of her worries, as she folded her legs up to mete her chin, gloomily hovering in the vast emptiness.

**_Rattle._ **

Her eyes shot down to the bracelet. She watched it intently, eyes slanted in focus…after a few seconds, she figured she was hearing things. Back to moping.

**_RattleRattle!_ **

Her eyes darted back to the object of interest, re-focused. She knew that was something.

Slowly, she pushed her arm out causing the shaking of the metal to intensify the further she extended. Forming an “o” shape with her fingers, the rattling began to go haywire, much to her joy.

“Aha, ‘gotcha!”

Haruko gleefully reached into her pocket and pulled out a small telescope, she pointed it at the same direction that had just been host to her “o”.

From there, a lens extended from the cap of the telescope, amplifying the women’s view…and then another one popped out…then another, then another, then another, then another, then another (which broke), and then another.

Haruko had seen all she needed to see though. With a rev of her engine, and the sound of rattling filling the air, Haruko’s feline smirk returned.

“Alright! Next destination: Mabase!” Once again, she rambled onto herself, for seemingly no purpose.

The wheels began to steer and off she went, but not before a more sinister grin encompassed her features.

“See ya’ soon, Takkun.” 

* * *

**_Mabase, 2002_ **

Sneakers squeaked on the pavement of the side-walk.

Up and down, a small baseball bounced in the boy’s hands, up and down…

The slowly rising sun tinted his pathway in a mirage of pink and orange, only to be washed as he walked past the lake, the overhanging bridge shading any color from the sky.

His hands raised up to a vending machine that was planted on the side of the street.

Strangely forcefully, he slammed a coin in the slot, opening himself to the opportunity to buy a drink.

His hand floated above the two options that the machine gave him thoughtfully. One button read was fancily adorned with the words “Sour Grape Chuhai”, the other simply read “Sprite.”

**_CRACK!_ **

The cap of the sprite can came flying off, the boy taking a long drink from it as he made his way up to the platform of the train station.

The rails of the street echoed and vibrated, as the train arrived, small bits of paper that had been littered around its landing spot were thrown up in its wake.

Right then, Naota Nandaba stepped on the train, sprite ninety-five percent full.

Seven minutes later, Naota Nandaba stepped off the train, sprite forty-five percent full.

Today was the return to the eighth grade, something Naota had been dreading for the last two weeks. Not for any personal reasons, but coasting was refreshing and school was exhausting. Simple.

“Hey, train-boy.” A feminine voice to his left said, causing Naotas attention to immediately **snap** to said direction.

“Hey Ninamori.” He replied simply; more formal introductions were not needed. They’d been dating since the middle of seventh grade.

Starring back at her, Naota’s eyes betrayed the aloofness as his sight and mind both worked in harmony to analyze the top of her head and desperately try to figure out the question that had been plaguing his mind since the last time he saw-

“You’re not taller than me.” She said with a laugh, noticing his space starring.

“Pfft, it’s not like I care…also you have higher shoes.” He contradicted himself in the space of two seconds.

“Are you kidding me? You look like you’re trying to reach the moon with how tall your soles are.” She responded, playfully kicking his sneakers (which he did buy specifically to boost his height)

“Whatever.” Naota said, his slight frown giving away his true feelings.

“Not to mention, you’re drinking sprite? You really are a kid.”

Naota’s frown turned into a smile, as he looked at his girlfriend “Yep, I guess I am.”

Any charm brought out in Naota by this conversation soon faded, as they entered the door of the classroom. From the quiet around them it was clear Miss Junko was having one of her “stress” days.

Naota couldn’t believe she was allowed to be a teacher in the first place, let alone be promoted to high school. Whenever she was “stressed”, which was every other day at this point, she made the whole class stay silent. Other people saw a strict classroom, Naota saw a battleground.

Him and Ninamori took their seats at the middle of the class. The crack of a purple folder being placed on Ninamori’s table made everyone in the class flinch. Naota braced for the proverbial blast that was about to shoot the girl down.

“…Ninamori, I’m having a very stressful day, can you please keep it down?” Miss Junko asked with a smile so strained it looked like it was physically hurting her to keep it on.

Ninamori just nodded, realizing even a “yes maam” could set the teacher off at this point.

As Miss Junko turned away, Naota jokingly made a finger gun at the girl next to him, loading up the bullet and firing it…

**_BAM!_ **

“NAOTA!” Junko’s voice radiated through the battle-field classroom like a bomb had just been dropped. “I TOLD YOU I WAS HAVING A STRESSFUL DAY AND **YOU DIDN’T LISTEN** ”

Naota’s eyes were wide with shock, both at being caught and experiencing what could only be described as the shattering of the sound barrier less than a meter away from him.

“I’M SPLITTING YOU TWO UP! MOVE, MOVE!”

Naota was still essentially paralyzed, so the job fell onto the shoulders of Ninamori, who begrudgingly stood up and moved to the back of the room, almost dropping her purple folder on the table in spite, but thought better of it as she saw Junko’s eye twitch.

The silence soon resumed, Naota’s facial features returning to their normal, bored, expression. Time ticked away. At five minutes, he started to tap his foot on the ground.

At ten minutes, he slouched.

At fifteen minutes, he turned to his left to say something funny to Ninamori out of pure muscle memory. He just as quickly slapped himself for trying to do something so stupid.

He couldn’t help it, the cramped classroom just started to a little more cramped.

It was clear his focus was shot. The clock continued to tick down, but Naota had lost track of time a while ago.

“The gold rush was a segment of American history- “

“A double L after the C means that the structure- “

_Wait, double L? Was this even the same class, why would they teach the-_

“-of a sloth shouldn’t work, but it does and it is- “

_Hold on, what?_

“a fundamental part of the gold rush, which actually took place in- “

 _That wasn’t right_. _This was like he was watching TV, every subject switched changed the channel, his mind filled with static._

“Croatia, 1999, the military act about to unfold here will- “

_Naota began to feel lightheaded. His breathing became ragged._

“Change the scope of surrealist culture and include- “

_For some reason, unbeknownst to even him, Naota held his breath._

“OUR FREE CASH CREDIT! YOU’LL FEEL YOUNG AGAIN! ISN’T THAT-”

_He was running out of air quick and he knew it. His face got redder and redder, the crimson color emphasizing in tone for every bit of air he lost._

“The scandal, which was a scam devised by a person with a lust for power and a tact for manipulation”

_Naota had to breath. breath. breath. He opened his mouth slightly, taking in a huge gulp of air, lungs stinging from it’s cooling sensation. He couldn’t breath out. Desperately he tried to force the air out, but it just wouldn’t, he couldn’t, it was too much, he couldn’t he couldn’t he coul…_

**“Aah”**

Naota collected his bag from the handle and strung it over his back, letting out a small breath of air as he began to walk towards the school exit. The time had ticked down. It was 3:15, the day was over. The pink hue of morning had been replaced by the orange sunbath of the closing day.

“Hey, Naota…” He heard Ninamoris voice for the first time since lunch break. “Are you taking the train again?”

Naota looked back at her slightly confused. To be honest, he hadn’t thought about it. Mentally weighing the options in his mind, he made a snap decision.

“I’ll walk, I’ve got time.”

Naota knew it would’ve been easier to take the train. He had the cash, and with the big assignment in his English he might not actually have had the time, but…it was fun to walk home with Ninamori, probably one of the only fun things he did.

This was his life now.

Train.

School.

Go home with Ninamori.

He knew that it was what everyone did, but when you’ve just come off the nauseating heights of channeling the power of a god, flying over the city, fighting an alien while duel-wielding magical guitars, everything beneath that felt, well, boring.

 ** _Tap,_** _Tip,_ **Tap** , Tip

The uncoordinated clacking of his and Ninamoris shoes on the pavement brought him crashing back down from his thoughts once again. They passed over the river bridge, nostalgia still permeating from it like the steam that used to fog over Mabase.

“Bet you can’t toss a ball over the horizon line.” Ninamori said, smile radiating infectiously through the sunlight.

“Really?” Naota asked, returning her smile, albeit lazily.

“Come on, we always do it.”

The bet had been started mid-way through seventh grade. Naota and his friends had found what could only accurately be stated as a lifetime-supply of baseballs at the dump. As a joke, Ninamori had asked Naota if he could throw it far enough to reach the horizon line. He never even came close to reaching it, obviously, but it hadn’t stopped the two from trying at least once every time they were near the Lake.

Naota retrieved one of the dozens of baseballs he had in his backpack with the same enthusiasm as his facial features. Dopily, he tossed the ball with only slight force, his actions fully communicating the futility of the task.

The ball boringly flew through the air, hitting the water with a slight “plop” after a few meters.

“Booooo.” Ninamori jokingly jeered him, as she looked upon the balls sub-par performance.

“Ya’ know Ninamori…I’m starting to think I’m never gonna’ hit the line.” He replied with a teasing smile.

“Well, weirder things have happened. Remember sixth grade? What happened to you again?” Her attempt to remember were clearly fabricated in an attempt to get Naota to recite it.

“Come on, I’ve talked about it a thousand times.” He tried to protest, though his face was already lighting up at the mention of past events.

“I still don’t think it’s true.” She replied with a slight smirk. It was the most obvious bait (considering she’d witnessed most of it), but Naota was practically tunnel-visoned whenever this topic came up, so course he had to take it.

“Fine. An alien girl hit me with her scooter and then in the head with a bass guitar and evil robots built by an evil corporation who wanted to use clothing irons to flatten the world came out of it, and then- “

His rambles were cut off by Ninamori’s laughter like a pin to a balloon.

“That’s so…weird.” She managed to let out, in-between bouts of laughter.

“I know.” Naota said, tone attempting to stay up-beat, although a clear undercurrent of sadness was lost upon Ninamori.

Silence overtook both of them, as they stood there, Ninamori looking at Naota and Naota looking at the ground.

“I’ll see you later.” She said with a smile, quickly kissing him on the cheek and beginning to walk away.

“S-see ya’” Naota managed to recover, although not enough to cover up the stutters that were leaking out.

“Look out for scooter’s” Ninamori joked back, as she made her way down past the river. 

Naota laughed…but the uncomfortable chill of silence soon settled in, practically pushing him to keep walking. Step-by-step, he crossed the bridge, some part of him hoping for any sort of background noise.

**_Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap._ **

It was just his sneakers on the pavement, squeaking along. That was enough to focus on, he just needed to go with the rhythm. Tentatively, he shut his eyes, completely blocking out any view of the world, any sound except for the tap, tap, tapping of his shoes.

He opened them back up.

The previously amber-tinged sidewalk had become bathed in blue-filtered sunlight, and he heard it…

**_BROOM!_ **

The revving of an engine began to fill the air and the mood swung from depressing melancholy to youthful energy. The sound of metal scraping gravel was also readily apparent.

Naota turned his head to face what was behind him, eyes not confused as they were last time, instead they were filled with an almost excited sense of familiarity. He immediately spotted the pink haired girl, who’s brightly colored curls were deeply contrasted by the ocean blue Rickenbacker she was wielding.

“Alright!” She exclaimed, as she sped directly towards him.

“Haruko?!” Naota screamed, unable to really believe that she was really here. His confused smile was quickly transformed into an expression of dread as he realized what was coming next. “Wait, no, no, no!”

The girl ignored his cry and continued to drive towards him, at speeds way faster than Naota could react.

He braced, ready once again to be knocked out cold by the Vespa, figuring it’d be best to take it head on instead of risking an arm or leg. His eyes snapped shut, and he waited…

He waited…

He waited…

His eyes shot back open. Any semblance of the blue-stained sun had been once again replaced with the sampler of orange. With a lack of Haruko anywhere in sight, Naota was forced to confront the reality that he’d just been day-dreaming.

The boy let out a sigh and continued on his way home.

 ** _Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap_**.

* * *

“Dad, I’m back!” Naota exclaimed as he made his way back into the cramped front of the Nandaba household, hanging his schoolbag on the coat rack.

There was no response, but Naota did hear slight gushes and murmurs escaping the dining room. He was tempted to eavesdrop but reasoned it was just Kanon either discussing “business” or talking about which celebrity he wanted to fuck with his pervy friends. It wasn’t worth the effort.

Lazily, he flopped down on his bed, his star position slightly sinking into the bed…a question of purpose rushed through his head. There was nothing to do.

His friends were all busy.

His guitar was…missing apparently, judging by a quick look over from his shoulder.

And the assignment was due in 3 days. Why should he do it now if he had 2 more days?

A quick shower never did anyone any harm.

Sitting up just as quickly as he’d slumped down, Naota grabbed a fresh change of clothes and walked down the hall.

**_TAP, TAP, TAP, TAP!_ **

Weird, were his shoes really that loud? Ninamori did say he had big soles maybe that was it…

The sound of cracking wood splintering under metal alerted him that it was indeed not it.

He whipped his head back, rolling forward to see Canti making a bull rush down the hall, the floorboards being shattered by the metallic footprints he left.

“Canti?! What are you…AAAH!” Naota let out a cry of terror, neglecting to dodge as Canti sprinted past him and send him spiraling to the kitchen floor.

….

Naota quickly awoke covered in woodchips, frayed bark and small chips of floorboard, along with the sound of his grandfather complaining.

“See, back in my day, the only technology we had was radiators and it suited us just fine!” He grumbled. “Can’t you get a new one or something Kamon?” This was accompanied by a trademark cough.

“Maybe we’ll have to, he’s been acting up like this for the last day.” Kamon replied. “But he does such good business…”

Naota looked up, possibly meaning to interject, only for his blue eyes to hit a wall of green.

“…Yo.” Was all Haruko said as she slurped down a bowl of noodles, eyes meeting Naotas.

He said nothing, only rubbing his eyes twice, doing a lucid-dream like check t o make sure that he was indeed seeing what he was actually seeing.

“…. **WHATTTTTTTT**?!” The boy went from 0 to 100 on the volume-o-meter real quick, facial features shifting to a black and white hue, and not metaphorically either.

“Oh, uh, yes, Naota…” Kamon said, his words neatly appearing in physical form next to his head. “Haruko has generously taken up my offer of becoming our housekeeper again…for, ya’ know, less pay of course. We value loyalty.”

“What can I say, I’m selfless.” Haruko said as she slurped down on the food Kamon had given to her, under the roof Kamon had also given to her. From one panel to the next, her facial features shifted from one of delight to one of disgust, as she spat what was left of the ramen out with the force of an 18-gauge shotgun blast.

“ **YUCK! I told you to thin the broth**.” She said, her visible words becoming jagged and dramatic with bolded text.

“Are we really doing this again?” Naota exclaimed, looking down statically at his own unmoving (for the moment) body.

“We sure are, except this time it’s in text form, which means it’s between **50%** and **75%** worse!” Haruko stated, the percentages far dwarfing every other word in the frame.

“Now remember, Naota, last time you two got up to some real…Fooly Cooly!” Kamon yelled, throwing his hands around like a crazy person.

“Fooly-Cooly?! I don’t even know what Fooly Cooly is!” Naota protested.

Kamon cleared his throat in an attempt to sound sophisticated.

“Well, when a boy and a girl have a relationship…it eventually progresses to **FOOLY COOLY**!” His words literally expanded as his perverted nature dripped like water from a unkept faucet

“Huh?”

“Or, ya know, there’s Alternatives to Fooly Cooly as well!” Haruko pointed out, slouching back into her chair.

“ **Huh?** ” Naota repeated, not understanding anything that the two (apparent) grown-ups in front of him were saying.

“Naota, Naota, Naota…” His dad strayed towards him like an unfurled slinky. “You’ve got a girlfriend; you should know this stuff. It’s a key rule of romance!”

“Oh yeah? Who would spend their time writing lame stuff like this?” Naota dismissed him, only opening up a can of bens he knew he shouldn’t have.

“I bet it was the god damn Russians!” Shigekuni slammed his fist on the table, rattling it from panel to panel, in a display of emotion Naota hadn’t seen in…forever. “Those pervert commie fuc- “

“ ** _WOAH!_** ” Haruko exclaimed, ripping his word panel from the sky and crossing out the language. “That’s definitely not allowed.”

“Can we drink now?” Was all the elderly man yelled in return.

“Uh, yes of course.” Kamon said, passing cans of sake out to every adult in the room, the red in everyone’s hands contrasting with the nothing in Naotas.

Haruko counted down, cracking open the can and preparing to chug. She threw it up in the air, waiting for the release of liquid. “…3…2…1…”

**_TSSSSSK!_ **

The hot shower water floated down the faucet like a miniature waterfall.

Color had returned to the room, as Naota felt the clear, refreshing sensation of the water wash over him, rubbing shampoo into his hair. He moaned out slightly as he circled the cleansing rub over his scalp, rubbing around and around and around…

His fingers brushed over his forehead and, to his surprise, felt slight elevation.

 _Huh?_ He thought aloud as he felt what could only be described as an extending bump in his forehead.

A few more minutes passed in the shower, but Naota’s concerns were now far away from the stall. At the first chance, he practically shattered through the shower door, drying and patting himself down at the rate someone would do to a fire, before dressing in his PJ’s and looking in the mirror.

As he thought, the image in the mirror displayed a large bump on his forehead, not necessarily petruding outwards so much as looking like he’d been bashed in the head with a folding chair. There was an undeniable sense of familiarity that came with the bump, Naota reasoned.

“Wow, did you clonk yourself on the shower or are you just happy to see me?” And there was the exclamation point of that idea, as Haruko let herself in, still not changed from her usual get-up of red coat, black pants and white scarf.

“It’s just a bump.” Naota said, turning to her with an expressionless stare. _Wait, did his reflection just-_

“Yeah, sure, was it a bump last time?” She replied; feline features being played up by the calculate tone of her voice.

“Last time was two years ago.” Naota refused to face her directly, as the alien girl crossed **way** into what he would consider friendly personal space.

“Time flies.” She placed her fingers tentatively on his shoulders, almost trying to sooth him.

“Sure does.” Naota replied, shrugging the girl off.

“Oh, don’t be like that Takkun” Haruko backed away slightly, her smirk not changing as she slumped against the damp shower cubicle.

“Don’t call me that.” Naota replied, eyes still locked straight, not even attempting to face the girl beside him.

He expected a retort, but Haruko seemingly stayed silent…and Naotas unspoken vow of sight broke. He threw his head to the side with anger, not caring that this was probably what Haruko wanted him to do.

“Why’d you come back?!” He said, tone attempting to contain anger and fury but only succeeding in throwing out sadness and loneliness. He took a lack of response from Haruko as a free space to keep talking. “The stupid bird’s gone! What do you even want?” 

Haruko said nothing still, her silence practically thinning the air of the room.

Naota had nothing left to say, and so, he began to slowly walk out of the bathroom, head shifting from the side down to his feet, eyes barley visible.

He burst into his bedroom and angrily thrust the covers of his bunk over himself, not even bothering to properly tuck himself in, as his alarm clock ticked down slowly…

**_RINNNNNNNNNNNNNG!_ **

The school bell rung out over Mabase High, Naota and Ninamori both walking along the rough pavement of the courtyard, the former’s head now being adorned by his signature white hat for the first time since sixth grade.

“So, she’s your housekeeper again…permanently?” Ninamori asked, slight insecurity escaping her tone.

“Who knows, she’s probably gonna’ run off again tomorrow.” Naota replied, his own bitterness completely overpowering any imperfections that Ninamori’s voice had uncovered.

Just like his exchange with the girl in question, silence hung in the air, neither party willing to add anything to the conversation. Instead, they just walked to class and took their seats, a far cry from the brimming exchange the previous day.

Naota knew the routine.

_His breath shortened._

Pen hit paper, ink cracking on the page.

_His face started to turn red, as he held his breath._

“And that’s why being a beekeeper is no _sticky_ business, hahahaha”

_Little by little any semblance of air started to fade._

“Please turn to Page...64 was it?”

_His vision began to become skewed and overwhelmed with blind spots._

Pages flew open, the sound of stacking paper filling the room.

 _His eyes shifted, trying desperately to keep a grip on what he could see_.

“Nope, it was Page 967…a little off.”

_Overwhelming darkness._

“ **Aah**.” Naota breathed a sigh of relief, as he walked up the severely beaten train station path. He wasn’t in a good mood, Ninamori hadn’t been in a good mood, he figured getting home quick would be the best course of action.

Sitting himself down on the sleek metal benches that adorned the train stop, he was greeted with the small announcement jingle.

“Uh, after deep consideration, **OUCH!** any and all train passing by station 8 or route 12 have been canceled due to, uh, pigeon infestation… **AHH, GET AWAY!** “ The announcement sporadically cut, leaving Naota sitting there, the realization that his train wasn’t coming hitting him like said vehicle that wasn’t coming.

“Psst, Takkun…” The next thing he knew, Haruko was standing next to him, small feathers covering her as she hovered in place with her Vespa “…need a ride?”

The boys face slouched in thought…he could always walk right?

* * *

**_BROOOOOOOM!_ **

“Can you slow down a bit?!” Naota yelled, his facial features being pushed back by the wind blasts of pure speed radiating from the Vespa.

“Nope, this is how it is on the road Takkun. Better get used to it.” Haruko replied unsympathetically as she twisted through the sky, giving little to no thought for the cars below her.

Naota let out a shriek of terror as Haruko began to use the vehicles underneath the two like speed bumps, bouncing off them like a frog to a lillypad.

“HARUKO! YOU’RE GONNA GET US ARRESTED!”

“I’d like to seem ‘em try!” She laughed, as the scrapping sound of wind synchronized with the sound of loud beeping from the cars.

Naota closed his eyes in fear for both his life and the cops that were sure to be on their tale soon, attempting to block out the world itself from catching up with him.

“…You gonna stay there or what?” Harukos voice prompted him to reopen his senses, to which he found…his front yard?

“…Huh?”

“That’s the law of the road.” She said, as Naota raised himself up off the seat and down to the street, still taking in the fact that the sound of honking and friction had been replaced with the general quite of his street.

“Well, I’m off to the store.” Haruko interjected, vespa raising up into the air again, as she prepared to speed off.

“You doing errands…that’s new.” Naota stated, with attempted (and failed) deadpan.

“Well, what sort of housekeeper would I be if I didn’t feed you guys.” She replied, accompanied with a coy wink. “See ya.”

**_BROOOM!_ **

And just like that, she was gone. Although he didn’t want to admit it, even seeing her leave for the store caused a string in Naotas heart to be roughly strummed. Just like the prior noise, he attempted to block it out as he walked into the house.

The silence was palpable, even Canti’s usual clinks and clanks were muted (in stark contrast to his behavior the other day).

Feeling his stomach rumble, Naota went to grab a snack from the cupboard, which, unfortunately, meant passing his father in the living room. Quiet as he could, Naota attempted to make a beeline to the kitchen while Kamon’s gaze was turned to the not-even-on TV.

He almost made it, but his eyes latched over his dad’s shoulder, spotting something of unknown value or purpose, something he’d never seen before.

Naota stopped moving.

Instead he focused on the item in Kamons hands. Upon further inspection, it seemed to be a photograph, but the paper was aged, brittle and stilted.

Naota went closer.

The subjects of the photo became discernible. Kamon was positioned to the left, smiling happily, as he held a small crying bundle in his arms, the baby blue cover that adorned the baby tipping Naota off that it was himself. To the right, a woman stood, long brown hair reaching below her shoulders.

Naota’s head started to throb. He’d never seen that lady before. What the hell was she doing in his baby pictures? Wait, hold on-

“Naota, do you ever wish you could go back to a better time.” The sudden appearance of Kanons voice caused the younger boy to jump back slightly.

“Why do you care?”

“You have much to learn my son. Opening up to your regrets is the way we humans are meant to evolve from our state of bloom, into the beautiful roses were all are on the inside. Sometimes you just want to go back to more fruitful times…”

“…W-what do you mean?” Naotas head was really throbbing now, silence icily piercing into him, overtaking the tone of the room.

“I’m cutting your wage by fifty percent.” Kamon bluntly said, eradicating any trace of gravitas the house held.

“Huh?! You have the money; you just bought a new van last week!” The boy spat back with anger.

“That is exactly why I’m cutting your wage.”

Naota knew that there was some logical leap in what he was saying, there always was, he just had to wait until it hit him.

**TICK, TICK, TICK, TICK, TICK, TICK**

Much like a microwave, Naotas mind ticked down. _Child labor? Lack of income?_

**TICK, TICK, TICK, TICK, TICK, TICK**

_Come on, where was the hole in his argument…what would destroy his viewpoint…_

**_DING!_ **

“Wait, hold on, I don’t even work for you!” Naota realized, mentally slapping himself upside the head for not grasping it sooner.

“...Oh.” Was all Kamon said in response, as he sheepishly looked from side to side. “You can go to your room now.”

**_SLAM!_ **

Naota angrily stormed into his room, completely frustrated at the actions of…everyone, he was completely burnt out.

“Yo.” The needle point strike of Harukos voice just fanned the flames, the girl having just seemingly appeared out of nowhere.

Naota let out a groan as he rolled over onto his bed to face her (or more accurately, the bottom of her mattress).

“I liked it a lot better when you weren’t here.”

“Did you really?” She replied back, not convinced.

Naota repeated the question in his head.

Naota stopped talking.

* * *

_Darkness…_

_Darkness…_

**_Pain_ ** _…_

Naotas eyes shot awake, as he felt a burning sensation in the top of his head,

“…Guess I just need to hold it.” He mumbled trying to press the bump back down, only for his hand to begin to warm under the contact with the skin.

_What the hell?_

Almost drunkenly, he stumbled out of bed, ignoring everything around him as he stumbled into the bathroom, head pain only getting worse and worse every step he took.

He nearly collapsed on the sink before he made it to his intended destination, the mirror. Looking up he saw not only a sizzling red logo embroidered on his head, but he also noticed the reflection in the mirror…wasn’t him.

”H-huh?” He gulped; head pain basically being nulled by the reflections bright yellow stare. It still bore a resemblance to Naota, but its skin was mechanical and navy, its eyes being replaced fully by bright yellow glass plates. It looked…younger, around two years younger.

Naota began to back away but it was too late as the mirror shattered, the copy jumping out of it, clinking metal hand stretched towards the boy’s head. Before he could call for help, the robot **ripped** what appeared to be a flying V guitar from his head and leapt through the window, leaving fragments of glass spilled out on the floor.

“…Haruko!” He called out, mind not fully comprehending what he just saw.

Accompanying his call, the girl lazily lounged herself in the doorway, rubbing one eye.

“What is it?”

Naota’s eyes were wide. The words tried to formulate, but nothing came out despite his obvious attempts to talk. The only thing that was even close to a message was the neon-red hot spot located on his head.

“…let’s hit the road.” Haruko said, walking down to the bedroom to get changed.

**_BROOM!_ **

The pair were accompanied by Canti, as they drove the vespa into the night, the shining stars illuminating their path.

“So, you’re saying it looked like you?!” Haruko said, having to practically yell due to the high speeds they were driving at.

“Yeah, exactly like me!”

“I don’t know Takkun, that seems pretty unrealistic to me…” Haruko said back, deadpan.

“Are you kidding me?!”

Their back-and-forth was interrupted by the clink of Cantis arm pointing outwards.

His finger marked a pile of smashed sour drinks strewn through the concrete sidewalk like bodies in a warzone.

“…Okay.” Haruko acknowledged, Naota unable to see the cunning smile that overtook her features.

**_FWOOOOOOOM!_ **

A burst of yellow light erupted from the abandoned Medical Mechanica plant, coating Mabase in a brilliant light of gold.

“Guess we’ve found him…” Haruko said, slamming her foot on the pedal and speeding off through the air, towards the eclipsing yellow pillar, much to Naotas protests.

The vespa cut through the distance between them like scissors to paper, as Haruko vaulted off the vehicle and lunged for the Naota copy, only for the robot imposter to backflip out of the way.

Brandishing the flying V, it dodged **around** Haruko, it clinked and cranked over to Naota and Canti before either could react, grabbing it’s duplicate and tossing him down the tilt of the building

“AAAAAAAAAAH!” Naota screamed back only felling the whack of the metallic surface or nothing as he fell, before the whiplash of wind became audible, and Canti caught him.

**_Bam!_ **

Or not. The Naota duplicate threw himself at Canti like a bullet, sending the robot spiraling off the battle ground and Naota back to free falling, only just managing to stop himself on the interior of the handle.

He had little time to rest as the machine came rushing at him, non-emoting eyes still somehow filled with a universally recognizable look of bloodlust.

“Not so fast!” Haruko flew out of nowhere, and batted him away, the dark blue blur of the Rickenbacker being all that was visible as the robot-boy went flying, falling down the side of the iron.

Defying gravity, the ‘bot firmly planted it’s feet on the sides of the building, bringing its descent to a halt and preparing as Haruko shot around the sides of the building as well, doing the same psychics-breaking trick.

Their guitars clashed strike for strike, every collision bringing sparks of heat flaking away from both weapons. Harukos advantage was clear however, as she dodged around the robots (no shit) robotic movements with ease.

As the machine thrusted his guitar out, Haruko saw the opening for the death blow, ducking downwards and **_smashing_** the machines leg off…or so she thought.

Not as stagnate and solid as initially though, the dent in its leg turned the robots metallic structure into a type of liquid, which quickly solidified back to regular shape, encasing the Rickenbacker in its appendage.

“Wha- “Haruko had little time to react as the guitar popped out of the leg, into the ‘bot’s hand.

She quickly threw a head kick at her foe, only managing to temporarily stagger him by sending his head literally spinning. Unfortunately for her, a robot didn't necessarily need all it's senses to roll around the second kick she launched, replying with his own sweep attack, putting her down on her knees. Her defense was completely shattered, giving the duplicate Naota ample time to harness the power of both guitars and send her flying with a devastating cross slash.

Taking a short amount of time to once again dispose of the slowly crawling back up Canti, the machine turned its attention to the it’s main target, as it easily soared through the air due to the power of the two guitars.

Naota let out a small scream, barley managing to dodge around the two weapons that were being swung at him. Eventually, the robot had him backed in-between a rock and a hard place, Naota's back pinned to the ground, as his replica continued swinging both guitars with the intent to decapitate the boy, only for the target of the attack to roll, the metal of the bludgeons connecting with the steel of the iron handle. This smash sent reverberations through the whole building, and for the first time in two years, steam started to pour out of the bottom, rising up to merge with Mabases sky.

As close to furious as an AI could get, the robot thrust itself towards Naota, attacks bludgeoning and battering the smooth metal of the plant but not the boy himself, who still managed to weave and slink through every blow.

His luck ran out however as the doppelganger quickly caught onto his pattern, and pinned him down, using the two guitars to stop his dodges by sticking them in the iron. It leapt up in the air, menacingly ready to pounce on its prey and tear him to shreds…only for Naotas feet to sharply connect with its midsection, sending it flying backwards to slam against the rest of the metal.

It was here, seeing his foe flying up towards the skyline, that Naota formed an idea.

“Canti!” Naota cried, causing the aforementioned robot flying upwards to meet him. Naotas duplicated lunged at him, but it was too late, as Canti absorbed **the mechanical copy,** his flesh becoming singed and red, although his screen stayed stagnate.Quickly, Canti’s overall body changed, transforming his composition into one resembling a cannon. The robotic Naota was now converted to pure energy, as Canti arced his aim upwards, almost firing the bullet out of the atmosphere, before the projectile’s design started to degrade, eventually imploding in on itself, shutting the machine down for good.

The fact that he could rest took a minute to settle in, before Naota slumped down, resting his back against the tilted metal of the iron’s handle, content to sit back and watch the sunrise over Mabase.

The sound of rising winds once again filled the air, as Haruko came floating up, mounted on her vespa.

“Good one, Takkun.” She said with a genuine smile, almost as bright as the actual sunrise behind her. “…That was fun right?”

For the first time since she’d drove back into his life, Naota smiled.

“…Yeah.”

Haruko let the silence of the sunrise speak for itself before she hit the pedal of her scouter once again.

“Well, I’ll see you at home.”

**_BROOOM!_ **

She sped away, leaving Naota and Canti in a gust of wind, the sole surveyors from the top of the tower, as the residual smoke faded up into the upper limits of the atmosphere.

A familiar riff filled the metaphorical air, washing feelings over nostalgia and adrenaline over Naota like an emotional nuke.

**_With the kids sing out the future, maybe, kids don't need the masters…_ **

Naota heard Canti’s hand outstretch, a baseball being contained in the machines hand.

**_Just waiting for the little Busters (oh yeah...)_ **

Naota took the ball with a smile, before pulling his arm back against his head in a practice throw.

Once, twice, three times…

And then he threw it.

The ball exploded with friction; the pitch almost being delivered like a bullet. It whizzed across the pink-singed lake, spiraling with powerful winds on its outer layer.

Much to Naotas amazement, it **shattered** the horizon line, sending clouds bobbing around the sky like bubbles in a lava-lamp.

Though he’d later get off the iron, the triumphant blaze of reminiscence and victory didn’t stop for the rest of the day.

As he was piggybacked home by Canti, Naota looked over the streets, the clear skies and the town itself. He found himself mentally muttering to no one in particular.

_The huge factory can be seen from our town. It doesn’t run anymore, but all the adults got excited when it came here, said it was gonna’ be a really big tourism attraction. The lack of steam billowing out of it didn’t change much. Nothing amazing happens here. Everything is ordinary._

**_Everything is ordinary._ **

Yeah…it really was. 


	2. Amber-Stained Hourglass

**_Amber-Stained Hourglass_ **

Droplets of clear rain spread over Mabase, dampening everything they could touch. Naota had made the poor decision to walk home, meaning every crevasse of his nylon poncho had been soaked.

Residual water drizzled off the boy as he slammed his front door shut, finally becoming freed from the torrent of rainfall, only to be greeted by the verbal equivalent of what had just been pouring down on him.

“ ** _93 BOTTLES OF BEER ON THE WALL, 93 BOTTLES OF BEER, TAKE ONE DOWN, PAST IT AROUND, 93 BOTTLES OF BEER ON THE WALL!_** ” Three voices, one snake-like, one feminine, one grizzled, all sang out in harmony.

Naota grimaced at the sight of the three adults in his house acting buddy-buddy, mainly due to the amount of alcohol that was coursing through their brains and blood streams.

He had to admit; the drink-ridden craze did look sort of…fun. Cautiously, he opened the fridge door, reaching for the nearest bottle of beer or sake he could find… _he’d just drink one_ …

“Takkuns trying to drink.” Haruko pointed at him, causing a shock of mass hysteria to pass through to Kamon.

“No, Naota, you can’t!” The older man practically dived towards the fridge, snatching the bottle that was just fingertips away from Naotas hand and smashing it on the ground, sending stained glass scattering over the floor.

“I was only gonna take a sip…”

“That’s what they all say!” His grandfather yelled. “Hell, that’s what Kamon said and look at him now!”

“Exactly, Naota, go to your room!” Kamon yelled. Naota attempted to protest but quickly caught onto the futility of doing anything at all, making his way up the stairs to his request place.

Just before he reached the hallway however, Kamon came peeking out from the doorway.

“…And if you want something to drink, take this.” He tossed Naota a juice box that looked like it had been the only surviving remnant of an atom bomb explosion. Flipping to the back of the box, Naota saw that the expiration date was before he was even born.

Letting out a sigh, he made his way up to his bedroom, taking a notepad out of his book and beginning to do his homework, making sure to set the timer on his digital clock. It served as a great way to show that time could tick down, yet the events could stay exactly the same.

**_3:00pm_ **

“87 BOTTLES OF BEER ON THE WALL, 87 BOTTLES OF BEER!”

**_4:00pm_ **

“75…BOTTLES OF…BEER ON THE ‘ALL, 75 BOTTLES OF ‘EER, TAKE ONE DOWN, _TAKE ONE DOWN_ , 75 BOTTLES OF BEER ON THE WALL”

**_5:00pm_ **

“…Bottles of beer on the wall, that’s a bottle of beer…take one down, past ‘round, gunpower gelatin, dynamite with a laser beam…”

The slow decay of the voices is really the only thing that changed (or more accurately, degraded) over the course of the two hours.

“Naota!” His grandfather’s voice echoed through the house, prompting the boy to come downstairs, grumpily slouching as his feet met the wood of the stairway.

“What do you want?” Naota practically shouted, although the other parties’ drunken states rendered it as effective as a whisper.

“…get more beer!” The old man slurred out, slumping up against his seat like a slug.

“Here’s my ID.” Kamon added, sloppily throwing his son the card. 

“This looks nothing like me.”

“What’re you ‘taking about? Family genes, people can’t tell the difference.” Kamon replied back, incredibly matter-o-factly for a man about 8 beers down (a picture-perfect recreation of how he looked in his I.D picture coincidentally enough)

Naota, starting to fume, looked for an excuse to get out of it.

“Haruko’s not even drunk!” He pointed out with an accusing finger.

“Uhh…what are ya’ tulking about, I’m like totally drunk!” The alien girl slurred, in an awful attempt at pretending to be drunk…except that all the people around her were drunk and they bought it.

“…Well what about Canti?”

“He’s got no ID.” Kamon said, with a self-satisfied smirk.

“Yeah, like their gonna ID a giant robot.”

“They might, you don’t know!” Kamon yelled back, smile turning to a growl in an instant. “Take him with you if you like.”

Naota may have thought to continue his protests, but they dropped dead before they could even leave his mouth. “ _Age always beats logic_ ”. That’s what Ninamori told him.

Walking out into the rainfall with a similarly poncho-ed up Canti by his side, Naota departed for the local convince store.

The clinks of Cantis metallic frame along with the droplets of rain pouring down, was almost soothing for Naota. It was a rhythm, and a rhythm was something to focus on.

After drudging through the waterlogged streets, Naota reached the shining glass door of the 24/7 mart, it’s incredibly lit up interiors acting as the literal light at the end of the tunnel for the two beer-seekers.

Emptying his nylon hoodie (which was equivalent to a fish bowl at this point), Naota and Canti activated the sliding glass doors and made their way up the small elevated ramp, the smaller boy hoping the giant robot would distract the clerk’s attention for long enough that he could sneak into the alcohol isle and…

“Hey, short stuff, not so fast!” A man with a gruff voice called out to him, before he could even take a step closer to retrieving the beer. Begrudgingly, Naota took a few steps back towards the counter, almost as if he’d just been told to put his hands behind his back.

“ID Please.” The grumpy man said, slouching in his chair.

“Sure, let me just…” Naota reached into his pocket, resigning himself to his fate. “…here ya’ go”

He handed over the small card, picture of Kamon nearly having a stroke adorned neatly on it. In all his years of knowing his father, Naota had to admit that this I.D was probably the ugliest he’d ever seen him.

“Kamon…Nandaba… you’re fine buddy.” The man said, legitimately sympathetic. Naota did not know whether to celebrate or be insulted.

Just wanting to get out of the store, he dashed into the alcoholic aisle, picking out as many bottles as he thought Canti and him would be able to share…wait, where was Canti?

“Canti? Canti?” Naota called out, like the robot was a dog and saying his name would send him running back to his owner.

Turning a corner, the fact that there was another customer in the store was made apparent, but he barley took notice, instead diverting his attention to trying to find a six-foot-six robot in a cramped convenience store.

And then his eyes wondered, taking in the details of the other customer for a slight second. Purple hair, done up in small pigtails, along with a red long-sleeved shirt, sipping on a straw connected with a bottle of cola, while she read a magazine, eyes adorned by red-rimmed glasses.

“Ninamori?!”

The girl in question did a small spit-take with her cola glass, eyes widening in surprise.

“W-what are you doing here?!” The girl responded, taken off-guard by Naotas sudden appearance.

Naota held up the bottles in his hand, almost reminding himself why he was here before his eyes shot over to the girl infront of him.

“I’m getting beer…for my dad.” He said awkwardly.

From there, a chess match of the minds commenced, both teens strictly on their guard.

Naota knew she wanted to say over at his instead of going back home, but he couldn’t just ask her to come over, he’d look like a total loser!

Ninamori desperately wanted somewhere to go other than home, but she couldn’t just ask him if she could come over, she’d look like a total loser!

As silence loomed in the air, Naota took a slight step back…only for Ninamori to call his bluff, not saying anything.

She recomposed herself, barley even looking in Naotas direction as she confidently leaned ag-

“Do you want to come over to my place?” Naota said with a sigh, already giving up the romantic game of cat and mouse.

“…Yes.” Ninamori didn’t smile, she just looked at the ground.

Finding Canti stuck against a refrigerator in the freezer aisle, the two left with the drinks stuck in Naotas backpack, and a stank eye from the counterman.

Rain continued to pore down, but Naota minded it a little less now.

The trio eventually reached sanctuary in the form of a small tunnel entrance, only around three meters long, but top heavy enough to completely shield them from the rain. As they stepped in it, Naota realized it was almost like their own little pocket of the world. No sound, no lights, just them and the sound of Cantis moving metal.

“Why were you out so late anyway?” Naota asked, absentmindedly.

“My father had a party. I just wanted to escape the news reporters tomorrow.” She replied; gaze fixated on the ground.

“…Wait, where were you going to go?”

“I…don’t know.” Ninamori said, eyes slightly widening as she only now realized her own lack of fore-thought.

The hushed tones of both teenagers reverberated around the concrete dome. Despite being significantly shorter at initial glance, both of them felt like the tunnel was getting longer and longer the more they walked through it, exit drifting farther and farther away from them.

“Adults are stupid. All they do is drink, smoke and work” Ninamori finally broke the lull in conversation.

“You’re telling me.” Naota responded, the bottles of beer clinking around in his backpack. “Sometimes you just figure life would be better off without them.”

“That sounds like a straight-to-DVD movie.” The girl to his side said with a laugh, the vibe of between the two starting to positively tune up.

Naota let out a laugh, which was clearly turned into a scowl as they reached the entrance of the tunnel, rain water dripping into his mouth, which was quickly spat out.

“Ah! Eww!” He said, hands reaching up to his face to try and get the water out, much to his girlfriend’s amusement. “Stupid rain, why-Huh?”

He and Ninamori both simultaneously felt the jolt of confusion, as the skyline torrent stopped flowing onto them. Looking upwards, the shaded shroud of an umbrella became visible, the handle connecting onto Cantis arm.

All that could be heard was the sound of the pitter patter of the rain drops on the pavement. No rain, no sound, their own pocket of the world.

Canti began to walk, prompting the other two to keep up pace in order to stay dry, as the rain continued to pour down.

**_Wack!_ **

The green stained glass of the bottles clicked on the surface of the Nandaba counter, as Naota and Ninamori were engulfed by the heated warmth of the house.

At the sight of the beer, Shigekuni let out a small groan of victory, while Kamon leeched over to the girl in front of Naota.

“Ah, Ninamori-san!” His father only used honorifics when he was drunk, evident by the fact he couldn’t even use them right. “Hello, hello, welcome into our humble home.”

“Thank you for having me, Mr. Nandaba.”

“Is there any particular reason for your stay?” The older man’s eyes were **thirsty** in their calculations, desperately trying to sap even the smallest bit of information out of the girl so he could slap it on a headline later.

“No.” Ninamori stayed cool, features staying completely blank, in stark contrast to Kamons ridiculously dopey drunken face.

“Are you **sure** \- “Kamon’s speech engine began to stir up again only to be completely cut off like the gasoline line of a motorcycle.

“You’ve got your beer now dad, just leave us alone.” Naota spat, beginning to walk up stairs before his father even had a chance to respond. This action caused Kamon to turn pasty white as his potential newspaper dollars slipped away before his very eyes.

Ninamori’s face finally displayed a semblance of emotion, lightly smiling, or more accurately, smirking as she looked back at Naotas dad.

“See ‘ya Mr. Nandaba.”

“Goodbye Ninamori.” He replied, the straight face that adorned his expression merely a badly done blockage for the bubbling waves of disappointment and anger that were rising inside him.

Ninamori, in the meanwhile, had followed Naota up to the creaky wood heights of the upstairs area.

The boys hand reached over to the doorknob, gently resting his appendage on the shiny gold finish.

“Are you really hesitating to open a door?” His girlfriend asked him, half-joking and half-confused.

“Well, I just want to be ready for…” As he spoke, he clicked the door handle in. The sound seemingly triggered a grenade or something, because before he could finish, his door flew off its hinges with a gigantic explosion of fire and kinetic energy.

Through the orange flame that engulfed his room, Haruko’s bright pink aura refracted the light through the air, causing the top half of the house to be converted to a makeshift aurora borealis.

“Takkun, are you ready to **_rock?!_** _”_ She strummed the strings of the contrasting blue Rickenbacker, her words taking physical form as they flew at Naota with the force of a sniper shot.

“No thanks.” He responded, deadpan as he sidestepped the bolded words, causing them to shatter against the wall behind him, although not before Ninamori snatched a bolded “?” out of the air, letting loose a small shriek as she accidentally used the logic-defying letter as a temporary fire extinguisher, putting the roaring flames (which seemed to have caused absolutely no collateral damage to anything in Naotas rooms)

“Aw come on! Don’t be **_lame_ **Takkun.” Once again, the bolded words shot out at Naota, having a more noticeable effect on him this time, as he had to bat the words away instead of dodging them.

Unlike the prior ones, these didn’t break when they hit a wall, instead just unimpactfully flopping to the ground.

“Hey, beat it okay? Me and Ninamori are gonna watch TV.” He said, words sounding like they couldn’t even muster up the effort to be as harsh as they were intended to be.

“Oh come on, why do I need to move? All the other rooms have the stupid linen blankets.” Haruko replied back, eyes slanting aggressively towards Naota, although she attempted to keep her vision focused on the Rickenbacker.

“ **Takkun!** ” Harukos words suddenly turned violent as she leapt down from the bunk. “You’re being really **_lame_** right now.”

In time with her language, Haruko picked up the previously disregarded word and bashed Naota over the head with it, the impact causing the boys head to throb in pain.

“Aah! Why’d you do that for?!” Naota cried, looking back at the taller girl with a snarl.

Haruko sensed a chink in his armor however, her cat-like eyes fittingly roaming on where his feline ears once resided. Like a predator to its prey, her eyes shot out towards his head, her bracelet lightly rattling from the small amount of N.O energy that had begun to leak out of his forehead.

“Naota, it’s rude to leave a guess uncared for.” Ninamoris voice brought a hard drop of gravity to the situation, Harukos emerging hand practically bouncing off Naota as if she’d hit a forcefield.

“Oh yeah, what do you want your highness?” Naota said back lazily, although his tone was noticeably more playful than it had been before.

“Your undivided attention obviously.” She replied, the request coated in sarcasm.

Naota took a seat next to her, flopping his head onto her shoulder.

Haruko waited for him to pull away and blush, but a second passed, and then two seconds, and then three, and then four, and then…

“Are you just gonna sit there all day?” Ninamori joked, causing Naota to push himself off her with slight annoyance.

“Okay, okay…” The boy sat himself off the bed, and walked over to the discarded TV remote, completely ignoring Haruko (who looked like she was deep in a game of twister), and chucking it to Ninamori, who’s fingers quickly traced the buttons.

**_Click!_ **

Static began to fill up the screen like water in a glass, before all matter of white noise dispersed around a galloping horse legs.

“WE’RE OFF TO THE RACES!” A voice echoed through the screen, slight reverberations shaking the contents of Naotas room and causing Haruko to topple over.

“IN TIME FOR THE BIG RACE, TRUEBET HAS YOU COVERED, YOU CAN **BET** ON IT!”

The word bet appeared several times in big, rainbow letters, the incentive words stacking so high that it appeared to be breaking out of the screen and directly stuffing itself further and further towards the two teens, almost touching their noses.

Ninamori’s hand reached out to push the text back, succeeding as the display of colorful words folded like an accordion back into the TV. This was seemingly the wrong move, as the text began to liquidize into a solution that took up the entire screen, before it **exploded out** the sides of the box set, engulfing the whole room in a wave of rainbow.

Naota and Ninamori both let out small shrieks of unease as the wave of color overwhelmed them both. When the blinding strobe effects wore off however, they noticed that the polychromatic wave had washed over the whole room, every wall, floorboard and ceiling being completely tainted with the hues of the screens previous display.

“Oh, change the channel!” Haruko said with joy, as she picked Ninamoris previously dropped remote off the floor and quickly clicked the button.

“No, no, no- “

“No don’t!”

Ninamori and Naota both protested simultaneously, but it was for naught as the rubber of the remotes channel button quickly sunk into the controller.

Suddenly, the room was engulfed with the setting of a football field, although the smell of fresh grass was replaced with the fragrance of Naota’s room (which would be Cheetos and sweat, which, to be fair, was only half-off from a regular football field)

“ ** _AND THEIR GOING FOR A HAIL MARY!_** ” The sound of a man too close to his microphone resonated through the small room, eliciting sharp screams from both of the teens on the bed.

Naota’s eyes in particular widened as he suddenly heard the sound of stomping feet to go along with the roaring crowd.

Before he could even react, a hulking, 6’7 man dressed in football gear that looked like it could survive a WMD, came charging at him, wind picking up around the mans rushing form.

**_BOOM!_ **

The man charged through the bed, sending Naota flying back high against the back wall, quickly learning that the image it projected was little more than an illusion, as he stuck to it’s backing like blu-tack.

“Wait, how does **that** work?” Ninamori asked to Haruko, very clearly confused by the logistics of the situation.

“I dunno.” The pink-haired girl replied absentmindedly, clearly more interested in what was coming up.

Suddenly, the audible thump of boots on the grass became audible to Ninamori as well, her eyes snapping around to meet a stampede of the same one-person war machines that had just made Naota a wall-ornament came galloping at her.

“AAAH!” She screamed as her vision was overtaken by a mountain of football players.

**_Click!_ **

Just before she met the same fate as her boyfriend, Haruko clicked the remote again, the scenery immediately changing to a suburban driveway, its familiarity standing in stark contrast to the strange projection the image went through, as it was stretched between the room.

Naota began to finally peel off the walls, plunging down directly to the uncanny pavement.

**_BOOM!_ **

“TESLA IS ROLLING OUT IT’S NEW SERVICE RANGE!” A fake-happy voice began to invade the room along with a somewhat stylish car that had just rammed into the descending Naota, sending the still-dazed boy crashing against the pavement.

“Holy shit, Naota?!” Ninamori screamed, going down to check if he was ok, only for the clicking of the button to once again change the scene.

“IT’S TIME TO GO BACK TO SCHOOL, AND YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS…”

The interior shifted to a wooden, table-like texture, causing Ninamoris shoes to scrape along the rough surface.

“Naota, are you ok?” She asked, oblivious to the impending doom above her.

“…. STATIONARY!”

A tidal wave of papers and pens came flooding over both of the younger kids, burying them in a cavalcade of school utensils.

**_Click_ ** **!**

A damp sensation washed over Ninamori and Naota, as they found themselves suspended in golden liquid. Initially, the cold and bitter taste of the fluid caused them to begin to choke but as the effects subsided, the feeling of the alcoholic soak overtook them. It was almost like taking a warm bath.

The earthy tones of the liquid felt reassuring. For Naota, because it soothed the pain of just being slammed against and wall and hit by a car, and for Ninamori, because her mind finally wandered off from its usual sharp domain.

“Bor-ring!” Haruko shouted, hitting the fast forward button and causing everything but herself to speed up tremendously.

The commercialized illusions subsided, as Naota and Ninamori went about their bedtime routine, not reacting to the fact that time had speed up.

“Come on.” Haruko bit her lip as she mashed down on the fast forward setting one too many times, time itself starting to go forward faster and faster, displaying events that hadn’t been and maybe would be.

_The boy stood up from the wreckage, each of his hands holding the neck of a guitar. Red aura sparked and crackled around him, his sheer footprints causing the town to shake. Haruko looked up at him with wide eyes…_

“Wait, we’re not meant to be here yet.” An observing Haruko suddenly paused the scene, before clicking the bright red “stop” button.

**Black…**

Darkness seemingly and suddenly overtook the whole world, leaving nothing visible to the human eye (if they even existed anymore). It is entirely possible that this ever-encompassing black void was what you saw when you die.

**_10:15AM_ **

Okay maybe not.

The digits of Naotas watch shone red as he and his friends took an early morning stroll across the riverbank. The air was thick and cold, leaving any surface they walked upon damp, despite the almost ice like surfaces cracked and broken.

“Hey, this is the place that the girl had sex with the fish monster and then they ended up having, like, fish babies?” Gaku said as he traversed his way down the dirt piled hills that surrounded the flowing river.

“That didn’t even happen.” Naota replied, clearly annoyed by his friends’ outlandish claims.

“Oh yeah? You know Aiko in our class?”

“Yeah?”

Gaku just raised an implicating eyebrow, as he continued to walk next to the rest of his companions, shoes kicking up dust all the while.

“You are so full of shit.” Ninamori said back to him with not so much anger but distain.

“Don’t call it out if you don’t know the whole story!” Gaku yelled back defensively.

“Hey…what are they doing up there?” Masahi’s voice derailed the entire situation, as he pointed an accusing finger at the top of the small buildings and bridge that overlooked the lake. They’d been damaged since Naota had channeled atomsk, and the Mabase council had seemed content of leaving it that way.

Fast forward to the current day, two builders had snipped open the “do not cross” tape that had been wrapped around the entry points for the last two years.

“Wait, can we actually go up there?” Naota asked to nobody, despite Ninamori still answering.

“No, I’m sure they took off the tape and drove away as a joke.”

“Well then, what are we standing around for?” Naota said, almost preparing to run off in a full dash as his mind began to monologue.

 _2 years ago, everything in Mabase started to change. The adults said the town was being “future-proofed”, but no one could tell me what that meant. Nowadays, everything seems to be going back to the way it was before_. _I don’t know why._

“Hold on a minute, Naota, check this out…” Masashi took a small slip of paper and tossed in quickly, the card slipping through the air like a throwing star, so much so that when Naota caught it, his hand slightly recoiled from impact.

Turning the former-projectile over he read:

**_Nandaba, Naota_ **

**_Age:_** 25

His eyes widened.

“Is this…”

“A fake I.D, yeah!” Gaku continued the train of thought, pulling out another a tossing it to Ninamori. “We got you one too, Eri!”

The girl seemed less than pleased as she held hers back to the pair.

“This doesn’t even look like me.”

“Yeah, well, you and Naota weren’t there when we got ‘em taken so we had to use body doubles.”

“You could’ve gotten someone with the same hair color.”

“Jeez, everyone’s a critic.” Masashi interjected, lazily covering his face with his hand. “We’ve been getting into clubs all summer with these and we’ve been drinking booze!”

“Oh, gross!” Ninamori said back, face recoiling at the mention of alcohol.

“Gross? Come on, we’ll hit the club in a few hours, drink some beers and have a good time.” Gaku protested, holding up his I.D like it had any value whatsoever. “We’re not kids anymore, don’t be **lame** ”

**_LAME_ **

**_LAME_ **

**_LAME_ **

**_LAME_ **

Naota felt his inner subconscious surround him in a void of darkness. His head throbbed like a burning sensation, as he felt his eyes stretch between two points. The buildings and the I.D.

_Everything seems to be back to the way it was before._

Red waves of energy pulsated out of his forehead and turned his body to jelly.

_Everything seems to be back to the way it was before._

**_Nothing ever happens here. Everything is ordinary._ **

“I’ll go.” Naota finally announced, snapping back to reality.

“What?!” Ninamori exclaimed, his acceptance of the situation taking her off-guard. “Naota, you can’t be…drinking under-age!”

“Why not? It’ll just be one drink, you gotta’ do it once at least right?”

Ninamori looked over her shoulder, making a play at distancing herself from the three. She lasted a grand total of five seconds before eventually cracking under the confused pressure from the other three.

“…Fine, I’ll go too!” She almost bit her lip as she spoke, eyes closing in frustration.

The friends made their way across to the riverside buildings but Naota couldn’t shake her glare from burning into the back of his head. He felt his head throb harder.

* * *

Naota needed to leave for the bar soon.

He discretely tip toed into the house, suppressing both the clicking of his home key and the sound of his vinyl sneakers creasing against the wood floor. Despite it being less than a meter away from him, the walk to the stairs was filling him with anxiety.

No sound, no voices, just the suppressed squeaking of his shoes. For a minute, he thought he was actually going to make it to the elevated entryway, but, like the noise of a person being brutally murdered, Kamons voice suddenly slinked through the air…

“ ** _Naota-kunnnnn_**!” His voice produced more alcohol in the air than oxygen, as he slinked down the hallway, looking halfway-possessed.

Naota felt his heart skip a beat temporarily, his insides inflaming with fear in contrast to his freezing cool outside composure.

“Yeah, dad?” He said, lips folding over themselves in what a squinting man would describe as a “smile”.

“When you are under-age, your holes are open, and when your holes are open the devil can get in…do you know where the devil resides?”

“…No?” Naota practically asked, his focus more put on the fact that his father was talking about the devil crawling into his holes.

“Liquor, Naota, liquor.”

Naota’s eyes widened, as Kamon took an authoritative stance (as well as he could without drunkenly stumbling over himself)

“It’s for this reason…that I will have to cut your wage by 75%”

“Don’t work for you.” Naota quickly reminded him, breathing a sigh of relief and dashing up the stairs so fast he couldn’t even see where he was going. The rooms around him blurred, as his own body cartoonishly smudged with speed, desperately trying to reach his bedroom before a sharp hand blocked him like an iron bar.

“Hey, hey, hey, it’s not good to drink takkun.” Harukos voice was like nails on a chalkboard as it reached his ears.

“Shut up, it’s only gonna be one drink.”

“Yeah sure. It’s one, then a second, then a glass of wine, then shots, then hard whiskey, and the next thing you know, they’re rolling you out to your A.A meeting in a strait jacket, because you just couldn’t keep your hands off the drink.”

Naota felt immense fear shoot through his spine. That didn’t sound good at all. Tesuko wasn’t a drinker, but…well, it pretty obviously ran in the family.

“Maybe I should chaperone you. Ya’ know, so the last thing your cold dead fingers grasp isn’t the- “

“Alright, alright, I get it…” Naota waved her off, walking to the confines of his room and packing his backpack.

“I’ll go get the vespa going.”

**_Vroom! Vroom!_ **

Rubber burnt against cement, as Haruko twisted the handles of her scouter.

“Canti! You better get out here!” She screamed back, a surprising amount of expression in her goggle-clad eyes.

A few seconds passed before the robot came running out of the house grabbing a seat on the back of the scouter, right behind Naota.

“Haruko, can you take it slooOO-AAAAAAH” The young boy’s request turned to screams of terror as the vehicle took off at full speed, hurtling down the freeways.

The bright yellow paintjob illustrated the vespa like a lamp on the roads, meaning other drivers knew what was coming, even as Haruko sped down the wrong lanes.

It twisted and flipped through the air, wind snapping off the wheels and dispersing around them.

Naota’s vision was too shaky to realize that he’d already arrived at the bar, thrusting his head down to the pavement as the back of his neck was heated by the shoddily-lit neon sign that read “Captains Hook”

“Ah, it’s the vespa women! She’s back!” He heard a voice that sounded like Gaku scream.

“Yo.”

“Yeah…she’s…chaperoning.” Naota came to his senses, stumbling up to his feet, looking drunk despite not even stepping foot into the bar yet. His double vision began to connect, and what he saw was Ninamori glaring at him even harder.

His head started to hurt again. Reaching up, he pressed two fingers against his forehead. It felt like liquid was sloshing around is his skull.

“Woah, Naota, you okay dude?” Masashi asked, eyes creasing with concern.

“Yeah…I’m fine, let’s just go.” He replied, already feeling like he wanted to throw up. A long night was ahead of him.

Forming into a row, the established cast walked into the small, rinky-dink entrance of the bar, which was helmed by a square-headed bouncer who looked half asleep. One-by-one, the teens made their way up to him, flashing their fake I. D’s like a badge of honor.

“Cool.”

Gaku didn’t give the man a chance to look it over as he made his way into the bar.

“Cool.”

Masashi passed through as well.

“Cool.”

Ninamori followed suite, flicking her hair up as she walked.

“Cool.”

Naota headed the back of the line and easily passed through.

“Cool.”

Haruko made it in without the need to hold up her card.

“I’m gonna’ need to see some I.D, buddy”

The burly voice stopped Canti in his tracks. Not quite knowing how to respond to the situation at hand, the robot sieved through its non-existent pockets, finding…nothing. His arms clicked as he held them up in a shrug.

“…INTRUDER ALERT! INTRUDER ALERT! SECURITY ON ME!” The bouncer flipped shit and pounced on Canti, wrestling him to the ground and gripping his TV in a headlock. Several other men (the size difference between them all giving them the illusion of real-life Russian stacking dolls) rushed down to the entrance, dog pilling on Canti.

“Yikes, well at least you know this place has tight security.” Haruko commented as she observed the full-on assault against the robot companion.

Before she could even react, the four under-age people in attendance were already at the bar ready to get drinks.

“What’ll it be.” A short, fat man who sounded like he didn’t want to be working at a bar in any capacity walked over to the counter, seemingly overlooking any discrepancies he saw in terms of age.

“Uh…just four beers please.” Masashi took it upon himself to order for all of them.

The bartender made a motion with his head that could’ve been a nod, and began to pour the drinks.

Despite each of them getting the same order, the mix of emotions between the quartet could not be further apart.

Naota was slumped over the table, looking about ready to be declared dead any second, Ninamori was still refusing to make any eye-contact with anyone except the nearly catatonic boy to her left, Masashi had somehow leaned back on his back rest-less barstool, completely chilled and Gaku was…scarred?

“This wasn’t as fun as I thought it was gonna’ be.”

“ _As you thought it was going to be?!_ ” Ninamori quoted him with an added liter of venom. “I thought you had been partying here all the time, “ _getting booze_ ””

“…Yeah well technically…” Gaku tried to protest but wilted under the girls debilitating violet gaze. “…I got a mineral water here and left.”

“What?!” Ninamori yelled, a bit too loud considering the sorry state of affairs the club was in.

“Let’s just have our drinks and go home.” Naota managed to muster from his headache-ridden slumber.

“Fine. **One** drink.” Ninamori replied, wording stern on the “one”.

If anyone of them had bothered to look up, they’d realize just how pathetic the situation they were in was. It was one thing to have a shitty time at a good bar, but to have a shitty time a shitty bar?

Windowsills adorned the walls, collecting dust on their cheap wooden outlines. The most notable feature of them was the fact that they were really just “sills” as the owner had either run out of money or had been too lazy to install actual windows.

Almost every single customer radiated the smell of alcohol, marijuana and early day divorce procedures, coated in dust (courtesy of the aforementioned windowsills) and darkness from the flickering, barley-functioning lighting rig.

The only source of luminosity came from an old (you guessed it) dust covered karaoke machine that Haruko was currently jamming on to an audience of one old lady expectedly covered in cat hair (who may have had one or more cats with her at that very moment), one middle-aged man who looked perpetually on the verge of tears and a person of indiscernible gender who was face down in their own spit.

“Kono sora wo daite kagayaku…” Haruko sang out, vocals pitch perfect as she worked towards an eventual crescendo “…shounen yo shinwa ni nare!”

The beat of the song began to overachieve in comparison to the rink-a-dink machine, which promptly began to splutter out the rest of the music, crackling and singeing the base of the tune to the point where even Harukos vocals couldn’t save it.

Upon the song’s completion, one of the people in the crowd clapped, which was surprisingly resonant due to the lack of any noise in the surrounding area.

“Ouch, tough crowd.”

The only other sound that could be heard was the tint of four glasses on the wood counter.

“Bottoms up!” Gaku said, the group of four raising their glasses at the same time and draining the amber-liquid into their mouths.

Visions went temporarily hazy. Hearing was obscured. Naotas head **throbbed** with energy, the bump of fluid sifting even more as he shoveled the beer.

The glass hit the counter.

They were soon filled up with more beer.

“I said **one**.” Ninamori protested, but the words faded into the background of Naotas subconscious, as images started to flash together in his brain.

One second he was at the karaoke machine. He was singing.

Another beer down.

He and Mashi stumbled their way around the nearly unusable air hockey table at the back of the room, the puck making an awful sliding sound.

 _Another beer down_.

His head was burning up, it was like his brain was on fire, yet he did nothing but pour oil on the simmering sensation.

 ** _Another beer down_**.

Much like his father earlier in the day, Naota slunk over to his destination, planting himself harshly next to Ninamori, the overwhelming heat of his head ending up too much to handle.

“Eri…’need to go home.” His voice wasn’t as broken as you’d expect from a lightweight four drinks down, but a noticeable “tisk” in his voice only earned a glare back from Ninamori.

“I said you should only have **one** drink.” She hissed back, eyes as heated with fury as Naotas head was.

“Sorry’… have a…headache.” His sentences were broken and unfocused, wracked with regret and pitiful apologies.

Ninamori tilted her head back to him, anger discarded in favor of sheer, unbridled disappointment.

“You’re acting like my father.”

The words echoed through Naota’s head

_Father_

_Father_

**_Father_ **

The heat became immensely painful, for a second, Naota legitimately humored the idea that his forehead may be ablaze until, in a sudden stop, freezing cool took over the boy’s headache, providing staunch relief.

Then he felt the pressure poke against him.

“Ninamori…” He grumbled, speech beginning to become sharper.

“What?”

“Ninamori…” The pressure built up even more, as Naota hunched over, grabbing onto her sleeves. His voice was more a growl than it had been, as he moved his head upwards. “…Move”

His head ripped open, a sludge like liquid erupting from it like lava from a volcano. Naota let out a scream, as the strange substance began to partially solidify enough to burst through the roof of the bar.

“INTRUDER ALERT! INTRUDER ALERT! SECURITY ON ME!” The security guard from earlier called out, before him and his team were quickly smacked across town after a hit from the creature’s arm.

Growing to massive size, the sludge had begun to take complete form, constructing itself a body, arms, legs and a head, although it’s proportions and posture still shifted, the creature being unable to properly keep itself stable.

“Holy shit!” Gaku shouted, in awe of the looming creature that loomed over the remains of the bar. This didn’t stop him from running as fast he could.

“Fucking run Ninamroi, the Russians are finally attacking!” Masahi announced, joining his friend in their collective bolt across the ruins.

“Naota!” She ignored both of them as her face became overtaken with worry upon seeing the boy lying down, essentially comatose at the feet of the monster, who had seemed to take an interest in Naota. It reached down a hand, small bits of alcohol dripping off onto him. 

**_Vroom!_ **

A flash of sparkling light severed the creature’s arm as Haruko’s vespa shot into view, her hand clutching the Rickenbacker.

“Here we go again!” She mused as she stacked Naota onto the back of the bike, before whacking him in the stomach with her guitar, which somehow served to resuscitate him back to life.

“Woah!” He shot up suddenly, almost tossing himself off the flying vehicle as he observed the sludge monster, only for the sharp feeling of clarity to overtake his head “…Hey I’m not drunk anymore!”

“Yeah, probably cause that big baddie over there is the collective remnants of your drink-ridden alcoholic brain taken physical form.” Haruko shot back. “…or it could just be a big slime monster, sometimes it’s hard to tell.”

The light was suddenly sucked from the room, as the enormous creature leapt up in the air, giving chase to the pair on the scouter. Haruko simply flashed a feline smirk, as she hit the accelerator even harder than before, speeding out of the monsters reach.

The behemoth crumpled to the ground in a puddle of alcohol-stenched fluid. Ripples started to tear through the mixture before several arms shot out of the pool, reaching for the vespa. Harukos focus became uncharacteristically fixed as she ducked through a spiral of two of them, before slashing the one in front of her apart.

“ ** _Canti!_** ” Naota shouted, upon seeing the ‘bot contained in the ruins of solitary confinement. Upon hearing his cries, Canti’s head stiffly shot upwards, getting a look at his destination point, before he began to fly upwards. All seemed well for a grand total of five seconds until Canti’s metallic foot made an unmistakable dripping sound.

**_BAM!_ **

A foot raised up from the puddle and launched Canti upwards.

**_BAM!_ **

A droplet of water that had been thrown off of Canti when he connected with the puddle transmorphed into its own foot which knocked him downwards, into the monster’s newly reformed mouth, which promptly shot him back out.

“Hang on Takkun…or don’t hang on, whatever!” Haruko physically grabbed Naota and began to swing him around, much to the younger boy’s distress.

“HEY, PUT ME DOWN!”

“Sorry, gotta’ do what I gotta do.”

Closing one of her eyes to aim better, her vision locked on the ascending Canti, arm beginning to slow down the throw…before she raised her limb (with Naota in toe) above her shoulder and hurled him at the air-born robot.

“ ** _AAAAAAAAAAAAH!_** ” Naota screamed in terror as he flew through the air like an airplane whose driver had had a rough week. 

The monster’s empty eyes took notice of the flying boy however, extending a pandoras box of limbs at him. If Naota had been able to see anything that wasn’t spinning at a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree angle, the eldritch manifestation of arms and legs that was coming right at him would really freak him out.

The beast’s empty eye-sockets caught a flash of yellow in their limited-sight, promptly turning around to follow the tinge of color only to be greeted with a Haruko-less Vespa **smashing** into it’s face. Bits of alcohol and liquid metal solution went flying across the battleground, as the vehicle ran through the monster’s eye socket. 

Despite its limited brain power, the monster managed to quickly catch onto the diversion attempt, as its muted color pallet was greeted with Harukos bright presence running down it’s arm.

“This stuff better wash off asshole!” She screamed, as bits of the grey goop became stuck to her pastel white boots, the effect only multiplying as she continued to run up the alien, trying to keep Naota on path to Canti.

Air lugged around as a barrage of arms tried to grab at the pink haired girl, who only ducked through the, keeping her momentum as she bounced and sliced at the appendages. From under her, small hands grabbed at her shoes, only for Haruko to bounce herself up into the air, taking aim with the back of her Rickenbacker and blowing the surface away with a shotgun blast of energy.

Still suspended in the sky, her eyes darted right to see the sludge monsters body extending horizontally, giving up on replicating limbs and just making a wall to block Naotas path of entry to the robot.

Defying gravity, Haruko kicked off the air like she was underwater, and slashed the barrier to pieces, converting the previously solid defense to pure liquid. She smiled triumphantly as she observed Canti quickly detect Naotas presence and absorb him.

**_BOOM!_ **

A bright red explosion quickly shot across the town, providing a spectacular light show for most and an annoyance for anyone over the age of sixty-five. 

Landing on the charred dirt, Cantis blue complexion shifted to a red hue, steam from the leftover monster residue radiating off his metal.

In a move so profoundly stupid, that it was absolute proof the creature didn’t have a brain, the sludge semi-liquified and pounced on it’s enemy.

Canti raised a hand to the looming threat.

**_FWOOSH!_ **

A flash of light temporarily blinded anyone in the observing area, and when clarity returned to the fight, the perspective had completely changed. Half of the creature’s body had been blown off, a torrent of residual fluid dripping where its right side used to be.

Before the beast could even react to the fact that it was now handicapped, Canti had already launched into the air, destroying the lines of limbs that had been stretched around the wreckage of the bar.

**_Bam!_ **

**_Bam!_ **

**_Bam!_ **

Canti moved faster than the naked eye could even hope to process, slashing through the hanging parts with grace and style. The only thing that was faster was the sludge monster’s regeneration capabilities.

By the time Canti was finished, his foe had already regained the half that had been previously blown off. The fight drew to a standstill, the creature unable to touch Canti and Canti unable to permanently damage the creature.

It was then that a message hardwired itself into Canti’s circuitry from a figment of Naotas consciousness.

_When you are under-age, your holes are open, and when your holes are open the devil can get in…do you know where the devil resides_

_Liquor._

Changing its path, Canti **exploded** up to the head of the best spinning and cutting through the desperate goo limbs that tried to block his path. The robot flipped itself around in mid-air, sending a titanic red beam of energy spiraling through the rapidly building tower of appendages that were (formerly) chasing him, before his TV head turned to the mouth of the monster.

Without hesitation, he dived, quite literally, into the belly of the beast.

Haruko watched in shock for a few seconds as…nothing happened. Five seconds passed, ten seconds, fifteen…

Suddenly, the monster began to stumble worse than it was already. Its grey skin began to radiate steam, as streaks of red energy crumbled through its body. The rattling of it’s almost jelly-like body temporarily ceased…before Canti emerged out the “back” of it with a massive explosion that quickly overtook the entire creature, blasting it to bits.

A torrential downpour of the creature’s leftovers began to drip on the bar’s ruins, as a tuckered-out Canti took it’s place next to Haruko, quickly burping out Naota.

**_With the kids sing out the future, maybe, kids don't need the masters…_ **

The boy may not have been drunk, but he was basically back to square one, as nausea started to build up in his throat.

“Ah, my head.” Naota whined, as he struggled to get to his feet.

“You’ll be fine in a couple hours.” Haruko said, fiddling with her bracelet for a second before returning her attention to the real pressing issue. “...Hey, where’s my bike?!”

**_Just waiting for the little Busters (oh yeah...)_ **

“Hey you!” One of the bar employees came rushing out at Canti, looking red in the face. “This is my bar and I have insurance so you better pay up.”

The TV-headed robot froze slightly, before (in a move certainly learned from Kamon) it turned on it’s bulky heel and began to run off, the owner in hot pursuit.

In the wake of the dust getting kicked up, Naota sat back onto the ground, smiling to himself as he observed the chaos around him.

_It’s been a month since Haruko came back. I don’t know why, but with her around now, everything seems…right…_


	3. Burn Out

Rubber and basic machinery harshly clicked inward under the pressure of a man's fingers, each tick of the keys corresponding to words that were laid out on the screen. Every key bash brought reckoning upon Naotas state of mind for his worst nightmare had finally come true…

His father had learnt how to use the internet.

No matter where Naota tried to hide, Kamon had found him, dashing the boys hopes of just relaxing with an ear-splitting cry of "Naota! How do you [ _ **Blank]**_ "

This time, Kamon was trying to work his way around "youtube" videos, but he was seemingly hopeless in regards to actually reaching the site. Naota had been seated on the couch, as an observer to his father's mad smashing of the keyboard.

"I can't find the link to the site… **Naota!** Come over here and help your old man!" Kamon yelled, prompting a begrudging Naota to walk over to his side, grumbling as he took hold of the mouse and keyboard. After five seconds worth of button taps, he mashed "enter" and bam, the front page for youtube popped up.

Instead of propping up in fulfillment however, Kamon's features slouched in confusion.

"No…this isn't the one."

"What? That's youtube."

"The site I wanted is…" The man took a quick pause to brush his nose and adjust his hair, as a sleazy smile christened his features. "…adult."

"Oh, you're thinking of **red** tube!" Haruko's head popped out of the hallway, smiling wickedly.

"That's the one!" The lightbulb of recognition burned bright in Kamons brain as he typed the website into the search-bar, much to Naotas embarrassment. Without warning, a mouse click caused the screen began to maximize out of the computer frame, giving everyone in the room an up-close look at what Kamon was looking at.

" _ **Aah!**_ " He exclaimed as the screen doubled in size, adorning the walls with a big, fat " _ **DO NOT ENTER IF YOU'RE UNDER 18!**_ " warning.

"Wha-wha…why's it doing this?!" Kamon yelled, as his glasses messily reflected the red stop-sign shield that wrapped around the message. "It shouldn't be crashing! This set-up is a **4K Ultra HDD, Solid Light-cooler rig!"**

The word literally hung in the air, motivating Naota to pluck them out of that air like birds in a hunting range.

"I don't think that's a real thing…"

"Boop." Haurko minimized the window by closing the tab completely, muting the colors of the room once again.

"Oh…thank you Haruko." Kamon sheepishly adjusted his glasses, his lull in focus being identified by Naota as a chance to sneak away. Careful to dampen the sound of his shoes hitting the wood floor, he began to slowly shuffle away from the area. His heart skipped beats, while his vision was focused squarely on the white doorframe that lead out of the room. Even the smallest noise would cause his core to explode with surprise.

" _ **NAOTA!**_ "

Boom, it exploded. It exploded and he died.

"The computer says…I've got an email!" Kamon yelled back, the screen once again having taken on a mind of its own and shattering through the frame of the computer.

Picking up and gluing back together his imploded heart, Naota turned back to his dad with a look of annoyance.

"Yeah, who's it from?"

Kamon responded by clicking a few dozen times more than you would need to in order to open an email, taking as long to get it open as you would a legitimate letter.

" _Eh?_ " The sound of confusion that echoed out of the man's mouth was enough of a sign that he'd managed to read it. Naota lazily bobbed his head to the side, reading the small, complied text that read _**"**_ _FROM:"_

Upon reading the name, he felt his eyes widen slightly.

_**Ai no kioku ga shibonde kara…** _

Rain poured down against the pavement, painting what felt like the whole world in a somber shade of sadness. Naota walked up a crevassed patch of land, shuddering from the chill running down his body. His traditional cyan hoodie had been ditched in favor of an identical raincoat

_**me o aketa mama sutto nemutteta…** _

Dampening both his clothes and his mood, Naota sat down on a metallic bench. Every inch of it was covered in small droplets of water, the harsh winds causing some of the precipitations to run down the grey metal like mascara on a crying person.

Naota sat there, bored eyes indicating he was waiting for something.

_**omotta yori sore wa juushou datta…** _

A bus eventually rolled up, bright headlights piercing the murky Mabase winter rain. He could hear the snaps of a camera lens echoing from the vehicle before the doors even opened.

With a robotic crack, the bus opened out, Naota's eyes gazing at a flash of red hair for the first time in two years.

"Hey, hey Takkun." Mamimi smiled as she stepped out onto the damp pathway, seemingly content to let the rain pour down on her.

"Hey Mamimi." Naota said, his lazy and uninterested tone opposing her sunny one. "What happened with photography?"

"…It didn't work out." While her smile transferred to a childish pout of sadness, there was an underlying sense of hurt in her eyes. Something had definitely gone wrong while she was away.

 _Tap…tap…tap_.

Slowly, Naota rose to his feet and began to walk away, eyes aimed at the ground, as the now unavoidable puddles splashed around his feet.

"Hey…Takkun, wait up!" Mamimi shouted, dopily running after him.

_**Splash!** _

Naota raised a hand up to block the sun as his sneakers smeared over the residual mud and water that last night's rain had left behind. The cool air made his lungs heavy with the maddened dash he'd partaken in to get to school on time leaving him gasping for any bit of oxygen he could get.

Looking like he'd been shot, Naota finally made it to the front gate of school, gripping the iron bars of the entrance for dear life. Instead of the silence a "thirty-minutes late" schoolyard entailed however, he was met with a brick wall of chatter.

Robotically, his eyes scanned the terrain for any sign of his class, the search yielding little-

" _ **NAOTA!**_ " Junkos voice came piercing through the back of his head like a sniper shot. He whipped his view around to see her and the rest of his class standing next to a bus, which sounded ready to speed away at any second. "You better have a note with you or…"

Thinking of a conclusion to her ultimatum stumped her long enough for Ninamori to discreetly pass Naota a pen and paper, the boy whipping it around his back as he began to scribble out something freehand.

While the note may have been completely meaningless in a cosmic scale, to Naota, it wasn't a note, it was a bomb and for every second Junko had taken to pause, he could hear it ticking.

_**TICK, TICK, TICK** _

"Or I'll…hmmm…"

_**TICK, TICK, TICK** _

Her eyes began to swirl with completion, something that sent shivers down Naotas back and throbs of explosive-readiness through the "slip of paper" in his hand.

_**TICK, TICK, TICK** _

"Or else…yeah that's good." She whispered to herself, accidentally audible enough for Naota to hear. His throat hitched and he felt the outside of the bomb warm up. Finally, Junko turned her attention fully back to him.

"You better hand me a…"

" _ **HERE!**_ "

Naota practically punched her with the paper, huffing and puffing like he'd just run a decathlon. Almost disappointed in his readiness, the teacher snatched the paper from his hands and began to read it aloud to herself, eyes slanted in annoyance.

"" I wus", it should be "was" with an a, "walking to school today and wus", was, "on time before _an elephant stormed out onto the road and blocked all traffic and I couldn't get by it because it was really big.""_

Naota may not have been thinking completely straight when he was writing the note. He gulped as Junkos gaze began narrowingly cynical, which was not made the better by Ninamori frustratedly slapping her head in the background.

"…I'm sorry you had to go through that Naota, I'll call the zoo as soon as we get off the bus." Junko finally said, the legitimate concern that clung to her voice confusing the young boy.

_**BROOOM!** _

Tires cracked on the ground, as the bus speed away, significantly quicker than a bus should be moving.

Naota's seat crinkled as he shuffled on the itchy material, shooting a confused gaze over to Ninamori, who was sat next to him.

"Where are we even going anyway?"

"It's career day. We're going for a one-on-one _**lecture**_ with someone who's had successful career."

One detail in particular caught Naotas ear.

"What was that word?"

"Career?"

"No, not that one."

"Lecture?"

_**Lecture.** _

Naota felt his forehead familiarly throb and twist. Suddenly, air rushed into a small pocket that was creasing into his temple, which was followed by more and more, as balloon-like bubble began to expand out of his brow.

_**Pop!** _

The bubble burst, the aftermath of the explosion completely covering Naota and blocking out any sight he had of the world. Everything was…numb.

The first thing he felt with regained senses was the creaking of his feet on glossy wood planks. His eyes blinked twice, like a roaming wi-fi router, as stability returned to him. He was in a chair and there was a man in front of him.

"And then, I went overseas for a bit." The man droned on. A tie-dye headband covered his forehead, as small adornments of arm-bands and rings covered his arms and fingers. The word's "LEGALIZE FREEEDOM" were printed bold on his shirt, contrasting swimmingly with his noticeably red eyes.

"See the thing with making music is you really gotta…feel the music, ya' know?"

Naota nodded his head, despite not knowing at all what the man meant. He'd been sitting here for 45 minutes and in that time, it had been made apparent that the man in front of him was possibly the most boring person in the world.

"When you're playing the guitar, you gotta like..." Said the most boring person in the world while he grabbed his ruby Squire Stratocaster and strummed downwards. This taught Naota nothing about guitar, but didn't stop the man from continuing his "lessons"

"And then you gotta be like…" He grazed his hands against the strings with the technique of a corpse, the sounds emitted sounding more like nails on a chalkboard than anything even resembling a guitar.

Naotas brain kicked it into overtime of ways he could get out of this situation. Faking sick was a no go, simply walking away would make him look like a problem child, and anything else was far too complicated for him to think of. He decided to go with the lesser evil of the circumstances.

"Do you have any of your music here now?" Naota asked, figuring as long as the music played, he wouldn't have to hear the man talk.

"Oh, yeah, yeah." The man said, retrieving an MP3 player from his pocket and quickly sliding a brittle, banged up looking disc into it. The machine huffed and whirred, sounding like it was cracking the disc, until finally, any mechanical sound was replaced with fuzzy white noise as the music began.

" _Ooh!_ I'm on the road to find out the man who I'm meant to be and I'm…" A voice boomed out, vocals committing the audio equivalent of mass genocide, as the audial levels of the song spiked up and down, causing even more broken noise to radiate from the MP3 Player.

Somehow the man was looking at his own music like it was impressing him, despite the fact that he must've listened to the song at least ten times already. Naota, in the meanwhile, felt his ears start to pulsate in pain.

Everything, the lyrics, the style, the music, it all…

 _ **Sucked**_.

He snapped back to reality, renewed awareness hitting him over the head like a ton of bricks. He smelt burning rubber, and the awful music had been replaced with the sounds of Junko yelling on the phone (the only words he was able to catch were: "elephant" "student" and "awful")

"Hello? Earth to Naota!" Ninamoris voice provided relief to his ears, after what had felt like an hour of awful music being ingrained into his brain.

"…Yeah, what?" He realized he was once again on the bus as he looked out the window to observe the setting sun.

"How'd your lecture go?"

"It was awful." Naota said back simply, slumping down in the materialled seats. "How was yours?"

"Mine was really fun!" The purple-haired girls voice was enriched with an excitement that he very rarely heard from her. "Me and Miss. Koumoto talked about all kinds of different things like politics and wormholes and astrology. What'd yours do?"

Naotas brow furrowed in boredom. To be honest, that didn't sound that interesting, but he neglected to say something, instead focusing on answering her question. "He played his terrible country music for half an hour and then told me to "not drink coke because the government was drugging them""

Ninamori replied with a sharp laugh, leaning back against her seat as a smile broke out on her features.

"That's weird. You probably should've said something to Miss Junko. She would've been able to find you a better match..." The specifics of those apparently set off a chain reaction of questions in Ninamoris mind which culminated with her asking "…Hey, what do you want to do when you're older anyway?"

_**What do you want to do when you're older anyway?** _

_**WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO WHEN YOU'RE OLDER?** _

The question pricked into Naota like a needle, the sharp edge of it spacing him out for a few seconds before he jolted back into the present, looking at his girlfriend with nearly-dead eyes.

"I…don't know."

* * *

The walk home felt loose and disjointed. Despite coming home the exact same way for the last nine years, he couldn't shake the feeling of being…lost. Eventually however, he managed to stumble his way back to the Nandaba house, almost angrily pushing in the key and flinging the door open.

Chattering voices immediately fell onto his ears, not allowing him even a moments silence in his own house.

"Mamimi, I need seven thousand scans of the paper right now."

"On it, chief!"

Naota followed the audible trail into the next room, where he found Mamimi and Kamon working almost manically on the computer. Mamimi's face rapidly flashed as the light of the printer crossed over the thin sheet of paper she'd placed on it.

"What are you doing here?" Naota lazily said, motioning a finger to the red-haired girl.

"I've hired Mamimi to be my…internet advisor. Since you weren't here half the time, I had to fire you!" Kamon breathed, more interested in the computer than his own sun.

"…I don't work for you." The younger boy replied, confused. "Besides, what do you even need an advisor for?"

"I am uploading several issues of "Kam-on Mabase!" to the internet where I will sell them for a profit. It's gonna become a worldwide hit, I'm sure of it!" He screamed, hands smashing down on the keyboard hard enough to pop some of the actual keycaps off.

"…Why would people outside of Mabase want to read your magazine?"

This statement apparently set off an inferno inside Kamon, who started to mash on the keys with even more ferocity than before.

"Naota, Naota, Naota… _ **you fool!**_ Mamimi, bring up the chart!" Kamon bellowed.

"Aye aye, captain!"

From seemingly nowhere, the photographer latched onto a massive, unfurling piece of graph paper, big enough to take up half the room by itself.

"Now my boy, let me teach you something about economics! First, you start off there."

A small dot appeared at the bottom of the paper, accompanied by a bunch of unnecessary motioning from Mamimi.

"Then, when I first release the magazine, profits will spike."

The line sharply shot up in an arrow shape, teetering on the edge of the paper. Naotas eyes twitched slightly as he visually traced the arrow. It was almost…3D, every edge and crevasse of the object creating an uncanny valley effect in his mind.

"Then people will tell their friends, their friends will tell their friends and profits will only go **up and up and up** "

The arrow spiked through the roof, causing falling debris to descend from the top of the house, Naota having to weave through the falling junk as it instead managed to uproot some of the floorboards.

"Watch it!" Harukos voice echoed from upstairs, her white boot noticeably stomping at the hole that had been left by the intruding arrow.

"That sounds stupid." Naota finally said, in response to Kamons scheme.

"Yes, yes, laugh now boy, but I'll have you know I have over **SEVEN HUNDREAD PAY-PALS ON MY SIDE!** "

This was enough to send Naota up the stairs without any need for dismissal. His loss of real awareness gravitated him to his bed, the boy not even bothering to get into proper attire as he faceplanted into the mass of sheets.

Like aspirin to a headache, instant relief washed over him. Any light faded from his eyes, and all cognitive thought was replaced with the pleasing bleakness of sleep…but that bleakness was quickly interrupted.

Naota awoke on his feet, the terrain below him feeling solid on his sneakers. Judging by the darkened sky and towering hints of shadow, he realized he must be in a city or town of some kind, but that was all he could figure out.

The city was pure black. Every building, every patch of land, everything stayed fixed and stationary. Naota squinted, trying to figure out where he was, as the metropolis's color pallet made it expectedly hard gauge any sort of vision.

_**CLICK** _

_**CLICK** _

_**CLICK** _

Street lamps suddenly became flush with red fire, which danced around dazzlingly in the small glass container. This ignition brought _some_ visibility to the dead city, enough that Naota could begin to discern features.

Everything was quiet, eerily quiet. The Mabase streets may not have been a melting pot of activity but there was always some angry honking or harsh winds to tie it together. This place had…nothing.

Naota quickly realized that simply standing around wasn't going to do anything, so he began to nervously explore his new domain. The squeaking of his sneaker soles was far more prominent than it usually would be, in fact, it was probably the only sound that radiated from the silent city.

Slowly, he weaved through the streets, each one lit up by a matching row of street-lamps. His eyes closed slightly in confusion as he took in the scenery. Halls of people adorned the roads, each one displaying nothing more than a shimmer of emotion.

Laughter, boredom, business. These were the most prominent feelings Naota saw, but each person was just a solidly dark and stationary as the buildings were. They were like silhouettes, shadows of feelings frozen in time and left as statues.

A slight sizzling sound began to invade the silence. It was quiet but, in this world, it was the audio equivalent of a bomb being dropped. Naotas body whipped around to try and find the source of the sound, eyes filling with a mixture of shock and fury.

Sapphire-stained light crackled off an electric sign, the plastic of the logo washed out into fancy letters that read "Café Bleu".

" _Huh?_ " Naota felt slight unease at the appearance of anything in this world that was not midnight black. To further hammer this home, the sign started to flicker on and off, discharging small, cyan bolts of electricity. The boy squinted his eyes at the light show, before it suddenly shut off, removing any trace of non-lamp color from the area once again.

Naota breathed a small sigh of relief, as the intrusion took care of itself, resetting the town back to its peaceful, death-like state. Only, this wasn't the end. From underneath him, the teen heard and felt what sounded like a coin rolling through the ground, before lodging itself in a slot.

Without warning, the city became alive, the silhouettes which were previously frozen becoming unglued and beginning to go about their daily routine. Confused beyond comprehension, Naota stared back at the energy-ridden society, not even noticing the bright lights that were shining into the back of him.

The only warning he got was the sound of tires spinning over the solid roads.

Instinctively jumping to the sidewalk, Naota just _narrowly_ avoided becoming roadkill, as a similarly dusk-colored car zoomed by him. He was not even given time to take this in, before a stiff shoulder pushed him aside, while two of the silhouette people went strolling down the walkway.

He quickly realized that, as an intruder into this almost automated world, he was effectively invisible to any of the inhabitants. Sticking a palm up into a shadow-man's face yielded no reaction and only served to confirm his theory.

A complete lack of any recognition sent Naota stumbling backwards in isolation induced-freight, clumsily tripping over a metallic-weight to his back, the iron joints of his tripper folding backwards with him.

Immediately shooting up from the ground, he stared back at the lever-like protrusion he'd just tripped over, a bolt of dread tingling up his spine as he heard the familiar clunking sounds rumble from underneath him.

Silence returned. The populous became robotically frozen, leaving Naota as the sole purveyor of life in a stilted, quiet world…before vibrations shot through the ground. Cracks began to form in the inky-landscape, giving way to the dusky-abyss laid beneath.

Naota screamed as he started to slip backwards. Louder destruction could be heard towards the middle of the city, as the boys vision began to angle upwards. The terrain was literally folding in on itself, creating two colliding slopes that were hurtling towards each other, ready to click together like a closed book.

Naota felt any grip he previously had on the ground start to fall away, his previous location on the peak of the top slope slowly skirting away as the surface began to become vertical. Non-active cars began to slip down the inclined-roads, sparks erupting from their tires as natural motion tried in vain to slow the vehicles descent.

The tin-like rooves cracked as Naota climbed up and jumped from car to car, desperately trying to outrun the gapping chasm that was opening behind him. His breath hitched and his legs felt completely numb, the only thing keeping him running was the amount of "die-or-live" adrenaline that coursed through his veins. Even this was useless however, as Naotas motorized-lily pads began to become dislodged from the road entirely, as the twin halves of the city began to resemble a horizontal "V" shape.

The teen quickly lost the battle against gravity, as any grounded weight was lost from the car he was standing on, sending him tumbling downwards. Air pressed against his back, the freezing chill almost creating a burning sensation while he free-fell down.

His mind acted quickly, prompting him to shot an arm out to his side and grab onto the green metal that formed the streetlamps. His natural momentum caused his hand to scrape at the sudden clutch of the pole, but the feeling of pain was a complete afterthought in this situation.

His drop was completely halted, Naota wrapping himself around the sturdy streetlamp like he was a snake. This action apparently angered the world, as harsh winds began to blow through the streetways, their only purpose seemingly to try and pry Naota off his resting place.

Despite the stinging air hitting him like a whip, the boy refused to let go, hand beginning to redden at his refusal to let himself fall. The winds ramped up with incredible power, each breeze feeling like a punch to the face but doing nothing to force Naota off the lamp.

It was at this time whatever vindictive force that was in charge of this world decided that it had enough. The wind's increased to levels of power previously unknown anywhere, easily tearing through the pavement and uprooting the lampposts.

Naota, who's eyes had been locked shut for a majority of this, snapped awake as a particularly intensive swooping sound invaded his ears. Looking up, he saw a lamppost flying towards him, its weight breaking through the wind.

_**BAM!** _

The heavy metal connected with his forehead, rattling his brain around like a Ping-Pong ball. His navy-blue eyes glossed over, becoming all white as any grip he had left on the streetlamp slipped away, along with the lamp itself.

His forehead was burning but it didn't faze him, in fact, nothing did, his consciousness capable of comprehending what was happening but any emotion failed to wash over him.

 _It's all…caving in on me_.

Light began to become scarce, many of the flames dwindling under the gust of stinging air. His eyes barley flickered with life as the two halves of the city collided, pitch blackness engulfing everything that existed in the world.

Naota felt sick. Claustrophobia overtook him, as buildings and cars shuffled into place, squashing into the boy. His mouth tasted like it was filled with paper, maybe because it really was. He didn't know how it got there, but he was soon encased in a suit of what was essentially paper mâché. It would've been a nice contrast to the darkness if there was any light in the world at all.

The collective weight of everything building onto him caused Naota to jolt back to reality. His eyes opened in a desperate plea to get any sense of vision whatsoever, but he soon realized that this was a ridiculous fantasy.

" _Help._ " He said, the piling heaviness that tingled through his everything not even allowing him to scream or yell. All he saw and felt was…

_**Darkness** _

_**Darkness...** _

_**Darkness…** _

…" _What do you want to do when you're older, anyway?"_

_**Click!** _

The sound caused Naota's eyes opened again, this time panicked and afraid. Any pain that had been burrowing through him ceased, the only weight he felt being that of his bed covers. Tentatively, he began to move his arms and legs around, the limbs feeling so light he thought he might be able to fly.

_**Click!** _

Naota's attention quickly turned towards the sound.

Inward and outward, Mamimi's camera clicked through the moonlight from Naotas bedroom window.

"Uhh..." The boy groaned, straightening himself up from the bottom bunk. "Mamimi, what are you doing here?"

"Your dad said it was okay for me to stay over, while I was his internet advisor. So I can be on hand 24/7 ya know?" She spoke quickly, a little too quickly for the still frizzled Naotas liking.

"That picture, what's it of?" Naota asked, raising himself up off the mattress and lazily walking over to her.

Mamimi flipped her camera around and showed him the screen which displayed…a blurry photo of the windowsill, any natural light blooming from it squandered.

"I think you moved the lens wrong."

"No, no Takkun! Light is fleeting, just like how life is fleeting, it's blurred on purpose." Mamimi quasi-bragged, looking at her own photographs with self-absorbed excitement. Naota began to get a picture of what "It didn't work out" meant.

"…I can't believe they dropped you in the big city." He said, the girl's obliviousness meaning she couldn't read the dishonesty in his eyes.

"I know right? Those guys just can't tell what real art is." She pouted, holding the camera up to the sharp moonlight. Silence hung in the air, before Mamimi placed the camera on the windowsill and began to walk away. "You can take a look at some of my shots Takkun, I'm going couch surfing."

Her footsteps on the wood staircase trailed away, leaving Naota sitting on his bottom bunk in contemplation. His eyes glanced over the camera, deciding between whether he should look at the photos or just go to bed.

He shut his eyes, leaning back and felling the cool midnight air overtake him, soothing him to a peaceful and-

His hands snapped at the camera, grabbing it and mashing the buttons to turn on the screen, which promptly lit up, Naota not even flinching at the sudden intrusion of life. On the display sat Mamimis picture, details hazed and smudged like a bad fever dream.

Naota clicked the button to scroll photos, only to be met with another blurry, stilted image of nothing, only this time the color was changed.

_**Click!** _

The click of the button only served to bring forth another variety of smudge.

Orange smudge.

_**Click!** _

Purple smudge.

_**Click!** _

Green and blue smudge.

_**Click!** _

Crystal smudge.

_**Click!** _

Flamin' Hot smudge.

The pictures both literally and figuratively began to blur together, Naota squinted in confusion, reaching up to his now aching forehead.

_It's all…blurry._

* * *

50 minutes.

There was 50 minutes left until school ended and Naota was counting every single second until those minutes were up. He'd come into school feeling a weight in his head but it had only intensified since he'd arrived.

Any time he'd put a hand to his head it had felt metallic, his skin splotching with spots of grey. His posture had become increasingly slanted throughout in order to accustom to the weight that had been jammed into his head.

His body was almost completely leaned over the desk, the boy having to keep complete mental focus just to keep himself from passing out. The iron-like weight on his temple began to block out any noise including that of Junko talking, the teacher's voice only fading despite Naotas attempts to hear.

After a few seconds of listening to what sounded like a school lesson put through a dial-up connection, Naota looked over through the window, hoping a scenic view could at least null some of the pain that was shooting through his head.

The sky's looked almost painted ORANGE with how vibrant the color seemed to be. Something about the skyline caused Naota's eyes to sag in exhaustion. Slowly, his eyes began to close, sleep seeming like a really nice idea right about now. It didn't take much for him to convince his brain to drift off.

_**BAM!** _

The boys head collided with his desk with a metallic clank, the collision of his forehead and the wood only rubbing salt in the proverbial wound of his head. His hands shot up to the throbbing sensation on the top of his head, desperately holding it down for some kind of pain release.

With his hands covering his eyes, Naota suddenly noticed the light that was peering in from the window, no longer tinged with amber but instead coated heaven blue. Any hurt he'd been feeling was temporarily nulled as the boy whipped his head around to the clock.

The arms read out 11:00AM in the morning.

"Class, if you could turn to page seventy-seven in the history book, you'll read about the _astral-gate accident-_ "

They'd had math last time he checked, why was she teaching history?

In panic, Naota blinked once again and just like before, his situation shifted. Sky slightly dimmed, smell of fresh pine, Gaku and Masashi swapping theories of what they thought was on the fourth-floor storage closet.

Yep, this was lunch break.

"I reckon it's some kinda alien test subject. I mean, if the government did have aliens, no one would expect them to hide it in a- "

The sudden occurrence of natural light caused Naota to blink once more, arms hitting the sudden appearance of the desk. Desperately, his eyelids rolled up, vision searching for anything to cling onto.

**Blink**

**Blink**

**Blink!**

He blinked faster than he could keep up with, the scenery changing around almost every second. Naota began to completely lost track of when and where he was. Every blink was the like the click of a TV remote, changing the sky and background with little effort.

Naota shut his eyes, trying to lock himself into a fixed, stagnant world. If his eyes were closed, he couldn't blink, which meant no more changes. Two seconds passed, then five, then ten, then eleven.

He hadn't realized how much he'd missed the linear flow of time until he was sucked back into it. Tentatively, he opened his eyes again. Glancing at the clock and the sky, he figured that this was where he'd left off.

"Okay class, it's time for a look back at career day!" Junkos voice boomed out, as her chalk scratched against the blackboard, illustrating words for the occasion. "Let's start with…Masashi, what do you want to be when you grow up?"

Naota felt his heart stop beating, almost losing focus and letting forth a blink. Any conversation in the background was useless in reaching him, the only things going through Naotas head were the question, the desire not to blink and sharp pain in his brow.

"…Naota?" Junko's voice suddenly became directed at him, causing his head to become even heavier "…what do you want to do when you grow up?"

_**Crack!** _

Naotas head pulsed with pain, the splotches of grey completely taking over his skull as whatever machine that had resided in the space attempt to escape it. His forehead twisted around the protruding metal box that was retreating from his head. Agony shot through his temple, burning in pure unadulterated, twisted…

_**Pop!** _

The box fell to the ground, small and completely underwhelming for the spiral that had just obtruded from Naota. It was probably 3 inches by 3 inches in width and length, barley longer (if at all) than a pencil.

Relief rung through his head like he'd just taken a painkiller, the boys hands moving down from the site of ejection, and onto to his desk. This liberation quickly faded away as his eyes shot upwards to face a very angry Junko Miyaji.

" _ **Naota!**_ What the hell is this?! You can't just be throwing out metal boxes all over the floor, think of what the principal would say if he came in here! He'd have your head and mine on a-" As the teacher loomed over him, fuming in her anger, Naotas eyes shot sideways noticing the box start to shake around manically, her words somehow provoking it.

His eyes widened and his mouth opened, but it was too late, as the box _**exploded**_ outwards, it's resulting form cracking through the ceiling of the classroom as it took shape around the falling debris.

Each component of the robot seemed expertly built, however generic it was. A silver finish clung to its metallic shine, while its eyes pulsed with a slight amount of red light.

Junkos eyes scaled the now colossal-sized titan, quickly realizing this was a **bad** situation, did the adult thing and began to scream as she took off, sending a ripple effect of panic through the classroom.

The sound of a classrooms worth of feet all breaking into a sprint at once became audible, as every student in the class attempted to bolt away, screaming. Naota launched from his chair, only for the robot's hand to come crashing down in front of him, each of its long fingers imbedded into the wooden floor.

_**Pop!** _

_**Pop!** _

_**Pop!** _

_**Pop!** _

As if it was a glove, the bot' dislodged his fingers, leaving them laying around Naota like overhanging pillars. The boy once again attempted to run out of the room, but any escape route was quickly cut off as thick sheets of metal burst out from each of the extricated fingers, forming a box around Naota.

" _ **Aaah!**_ " He screamed, letting out a small puff of fear as he was thrown off balance by a strip of metal shooting out and covering the floor, the sound of his sneakers sliding against the wood now replaced by the stationary feeling of iron.

His racing heart only intensified by the sound of the metal box denting as the robot's regrown fingers clutched around it, friction building in Naotas stomach as the sense of elevation rattled him.

His eyes desperately looked around the cage for anything even resembling light, but there was no sign of it. All that was there was darkness.

_**Darkness…** _

_**Darkness…** _

_**Darkness…** _

_**CLICK!** _

"Woooah!" Mamimi exclaimed from the balcony, as dust and ruin flew up from the city. Her eyes still largened in amazement she looked over at the strumming Haruko.

"Haruko! Haruko! Can you give me a ride up there? I want to take some photos!" She shouted, camera at the ready like a western hero with a pistol. The alien girl turned back to her with a sly smile, flicking her goggles over her eyes.

"Okay."

_**Brooooom!** _

The vespas wheels slid across the ground, although the sound of rubber grinding against concrete was the less pronounced of the two sounds that primarily filled the air.

 _ **Clicklcilckclickclick**_ …

Mamimi's camera clicked, trigger happy with the scenery, as the girl showed little control or care for what she was putting out in her photos.

"Samaji…that's a lot of photos…" Haruko's raised eyebrow was prominent but concealed under her riding goggles.

"Yeah, you want to see them?" The red head replied, clearly not expecting an answer as she pressed a small button on the camera that caused the newly-taken photographs to spill out from a slot in the frame, the small slips of paper flying in front of the vespa before shuttling back towards the vehicle due to air pressure.

Most of the pictures were discarded through the air, but a few managed to keep themselves from suffering the same fate by latching on to Haruko's goggles. Grumpily, she peeled them off, looking over one.

"…it's blurry." Haruko said, thoroughly unimpressed.

"It's a _**metaphor!**_ " Mamimi yelled back, her protests falling on deaf ears as Haruko was more concerned with what had happened to the cityscape in front of her.

The robot was grabbing buildings and reorganizing them, Naotas box resting firmly on his back as he uprooted buildings and placed them on different terrain. Red highlights trailing his eyes, his body and head turned a perfect 90 degrees, noticing Harukos presence.

Seeing the mammoth skyscraper in his hand, it didn't take the girl a lot of thought to realize what came next.

"This is your stop!" Haruko said, as she slammed the brakes on the vespa, bucking Mamimi to the pavement, as well as departing from the vehicle.

"Hey, Haruko! Come back!" The photographer shouted, to which no mind was payed, as the other girl went flying through the air.

Expectedly, the titanic monster swung his held building like a clock hand, as his arms showed no human limitations getting into position, letting lose his attack by gripping the base of the building.

Haruko's yellow piercing eyes looked over for any refractions of light, easily finding some and adjusting herself accordingly as the gargantuan building hurtled towards her.

_**Smash!** _

Shards of glass went flying through the office break room as she crashed through the window, the shattering of the opening muting the light that had been bouncing through the room.

While she had come through horizontally, Haruko quickly plummeted to the bottom of the tipped-vertical room. Luckily, the lack of gravity had little effect as she used her Rickenbacker as a makeshift ladder, implanting the guitar into the carpeted floor and climbing up onto it.

_**Fwoosh!** _

A couch plunged downwards from the other room, it's new purpose being to apparently crush Haruko, only for the girl to move herself backwards, the underside just _barley_ grazing the tip of her nose while it's momentum continuing to the bottom of the building.

With a feline smile, Haruko began to push her feet down on the Rickenbacker, the guitar proving surprisingly bouncy, feeling more like rubber than metal. Eventually, the buoyancy from the guitar reached a peak and Haruko shot upwards into a meeting room (moving fast enough to retrieve the weapon mid launch)

As she flew through the wind like a rocket, smashing her guitar into an implanted white board, sending small shards of plastic flying. Haruko quickly pushed herself onto the neck of the Rickenbacker and swinging from it, before using her own momentum to push herself upwards through the next opening.

A blast of light filled her eyes as she emerged into what appeared to be the main room of the office-space. More wood came lose as she stuck her guitar directly through the smooth-finished flooring, using her grip on the "bat" to hang on. Realizing the robot outside must have been holding the building sideways at this point, she looked towards the massive shattered glass window display at the top of the room.

Through this display, she could make out the outline of a metallic box, to which she quickly used the gap in her bracelet as an X-ray to see an almost sketch-like picture of what looked like Naota.

"Alright, here we go…" She whispered to herself before she retrieved the Rickenbacker from the floor and began to run up it, using the slight momentum she had to push up somewhat against the wood.

The squeak of her white boots against the glossy finish indicated that she didn't have much more room to run, causing her to instinctively jump towards the wall, where she began zig zagging from one wall to another like something out of a video game.

However, through this display of acrobatics, she didn't account for the ever-shifting position of the building. As the room turned from vertical to horizontal, Haruko was sent falling downward through the wood floor, creating a crater in the base of the room.

Darkness overtook her vision for a second, yet it was only a second, as she immediately bounced back upwards using a spare office chair in the next room, creating another hole right next to the one she'd just left, before rolling against the wood and leaping out through the shattered remnants of window.

Falling through the air with style, Haruko turned her head around to face the robot and his strange homunculus of Mabase buildings. The image drew her focus but not for its beauty. Instead, she took in how _awful_ it looked. The buildings had all been smudged together with no care for outlining their better qualities.

"Guess you can't expect much from a robot huh?" She buzzed, before climbing around her Rickenbacker and unloading a gun-emulating barrage of bullets at…nothing. The monsters robotic brain noted her actions but couldn't understand them, she had no target, no point to shoot at…

Then it realized the elevation she was getting.

Off every shot, Haruko flew further and further through the air, leaving a bright explosion of yellow on every bit of advancement. Soon, she was barley a meter away from Naota, reaching out towards his box…

Then the sound of wind rushing around an object filled her ears. Her yellow eyes calculatedly darted to the side, observing a massive metal fist hurtling towards her. With not enough time to dodge, Haruko instead, brandished her guitar over her slender form, masking any points of impact she could face.

_**Bam!** _

The shot sent her flying like an explosion, emitting large vibrations through the air, something that didn't go unnoticed by Naota, as he not only felt the racketing of the metal but also something wetter.

"Huh?" He exclaimed, the moisture on his previously dry hand leaving him completely confused until the sound of hissing water pouring into his box at an alarming rate. "Aah… _ **Aah!**_ " Naota began to yell, ineffectively splashing around in the water.

Meanwhile, Haruko finally managed to peak open an eye, once again feeling some sort of backing underneath her. Upon further inspection, she had landed on one of the buildings that hadn't been touched by the robots corrupted intentions.

The pink-haired girl peered out from the side of a billboard, making sure not to become visible to the massive robot that was in control of the city. Despite the fact that the creature took up more of the skyline, her vision became more drawn to the flashes coming from the bottom of the city.

 _Samaji!_ She groaned in mental anguish, as Mamimi either obliviously or stubbornly walked around, snapping pictures wherever she could, humming some unrecognizable tune to herself.

Figuring she couldn't waste her attention on this, Haruko instead flipped her focus back to the robot itself. Reaching to her waist, she whipped out what appeared to be a car key, before clicking a strangely marked button. Lights flashed from the other half of the city, before an audible engine was heard and her vespa came flying through the sky.

The robot took notice but was too slow to act upon it, as Haruko had already mounted the vehicle and took off through the air, aiming her guitar like a sniper rifle.

"Got ya'!"

With one eye closed, she let lose a barrage of high-impact energy bullets, each one easily hitting point blank, and causing damage to the robot's outer shell. Instead of being proud of this small victory, her closed eye turned wide.

…This robot sucked at moving.

_**Bang!** _

Another vaper-trailed shot rang out, denting the inside of the robot's chest heavily.

_**Bang!** _

The machine put out a hefty hand to block the next one, only for the bullet to tear through it, leaving a medium-sized hole in its palm. The robot shook around from the attack, sending the now waist-level water splashing over Naota.

_**Bang!** _

This time the small bullet pierced its leg, sending small bits of electricity crackling off it. With that however, the robot shoved out it's non-pierced hand and emitted a small wave of energy. From a distance, Haruko thought it was some botched gravity-based attack. Instead, she felt the vehicle under her begin to crumble.

The vespa began to literally fall apart, sending Haruko free falling to the ground, small gears and mechanisms in her wake.

_**SNAP!** _

An insignificant flash of light blinded the robot for a split second, it's red-tinged gaze phasing over white. When its sight returned, it looked down to see Mamimi snapping pictures like it was nothing.

"Hey, move to the left a bit!"

While this command was obviously useless, it did serve as an unusual catalyst to cause the robot to freak out. Its previously unmoving eyes slanted in anger while it raised a hand up in the air. Small bubbles of air like the ones Haruko had seen earlier began to bounce out of it, crumpling down every building it had not yet add to its pile, as well as Mamimis camera.

The collective collapse of the buildings sent dust scattering everywhere, the dirt residue completely overtaking Mabase square. A squeal was emitted from the red head, as the dust swung into her eyes, essentially blinding her.

" _ **Aah!**_ _It's…overflowing_." She held her hands upwards, palm's desperately trying to cover her eyes as the sounds of the collapsing city provided a hellish backing track to her misery.

"That's not good." Haruko's now-goggled eyes surveyed the scene as she sat up, the girl quickly breaking into a coughing fit as a result of the infestation of dust particles in the air. " _ **ACK…ACK**_ …where are you Takkun?"

* * *

The reverberations of the collapsing city caused the water to splash over Naota, easily reaching up to the teens neck at this point. He was wet, he was scared and he was alone. Those thoughts rushed through his mind as he urgently smashed his hands against the metallic prison, he was encased in.

"… _Help!"_ He shouted, eyes widening in fear as the water began to rise over into his mouth. There was no response.

" _Help!_ " He tried again, but it fell on deaf ears, especially now that the bottom half of his head was completely glazed in water.

" _H…_ " His eyes shut as the water reached the limit of the cage, the boy not even having enough energy to muster another cry for aid. Instead, he pushed his head backwards and began to sink. The cooling sensation began to run through him, numbing any fear of death he had.

His brain began to run on the bare minimum, only one question running through his mind:

_What do you want to be when you grow up?_

_**I don't know…** _

His eyes opened slightly.

_**Darkness…** _

_**Darkness…** _

Light.

Naota's vision came flooding back, much to his previously-resigned surprise. It was like a lightbulb had been switched on in the box, except the lightbulb was…his forehead? The water started to bubble with heat, but Naota couldn't feel it, in fact, he couldn't feel much at this point. He could only feel… _power._

_**Rattle** _

_**Rattle** _

_**Rattle.** _

Harukos braclet began to go haywire, the girl herself looking downward at it in surprise. Soon enough though, her vision was drawn upwards as a massive spiral of red energy erupted through the top of Mabase like a recently-activated volcano.

Soon enough, every particle of dust in the air was vaporized in a huge wave of red, leaving a clear image of what was going on.

At the robot's head stood Naota, two guitars in hand, completely encased in Atomsks aura.

The robot reacted predictably, attempting to slap Naota downwards, but this was an effort in futility. With a single swing of the flying V, the robot's hand was sent plummeting to the ground.

Through a simple leap off the robot's head, Naota proceeded to crush it downwards into the robot's body, sending sparks flying from the automaton's top like fireworks as he flew through the air, arcing back to the robot.

_**Slash!** _

Off went the arms.

_**Slash!  
** _

The legs quickly followed, causing his enemy to topple over, flying horizontal through the air.

Naota quickly flew upwards, leaving a trail of crimson behind him, before flying directly downwards at the robot's body, pushing forward both of his guitars as energy built up around him. With sparks of sizzling red energy, he let out a universe-shaking assault. 

_**BOOOOOOOM!** _

Everything went white for a couple of seconds. Haruko, Mamimi and anyone else in the area couldn't be entirely sure if they were alive or dead for that short passage of time. By the time any semblance of clarity returned to Mabase, things looked different.

Buildings had been built back up apparently out of nowhere. Mamimi felt a weight on her neck, while Haruko felt the same on her back. Both the vespa and camera had reappeared, with no signs of their destroyer left.

"… _I found him._ " Haruko's smile was almost devilish, as she slowly hopped back onto the vespa.

Smoke from Naotas attack was left floating around, slowly blowing past Mamimi. Her eyes weren't focused on that though, instead they were strictly fixated on the boy on the last patch of rubble.

Naota faced the sun, no trace of his guitars and no trace of Atomsk. His back was turned to her, raised up on a small pile of rubble. The sky's bleed orange and nostalgia.

There was no blurriness to be found as Mamimi put the camera to her eye and snapped a picture.

* * *

"This is so unfair! The Nigerian prince said he was going to pay me three hundred thousand if I just gave him a small investment…" Kamon grumbled to himself, arms crossed

_Mamimi got her photography job back. She went back to the big city three days later"_

"Final boarding call for bus 317 departing to…"

Naota's back rested softly against the metal bench, the last glimpses of the girl being seen in the flashes of her camera.

_The locations of the buildings got all switched up around the city, but it turned out okay. Everything went back to normal pretty fast._

He watched as the bus drove away, driving her away for possibly the last time. He waited until it was far out of sight before he started walking away.

_Something amazing happens everyday here. I don't really like it as much as I thought I would._

His inner-monologue was completely derailed, as a loud _**HOOOOOOOOONK!**_ Blew out from the streets.

"Get the tranquilizers!" A stumpy man in a green uniform yelled to his lanky partner.

"We don't have any!"

"Oh jesus, this is a real clusterfuck!"

Pavement smashed as a large elephant came trudging through the path of the road, blocking any traffic from passing.

Naota strangely smiled.

_**With the kids sing out the future, maybe, kids don't need the masters…** _


	4. Half-Swing

" _Tasuku Nandaba steps up to the plate, it's all or nothing for the blue sox here…"_

Kamon and Shigekuni's were **glued** to the TV screen as the announcer commentated through the game. Both of the older men's faces were quite literally pressed up against the surface, ready to expand and explode at even the slightest movement.

"Hey…move out of the way, you're blocking it." Haruko complained through mouthfuls of potato chip, prompting Kamon to sit backwards to some extent, while Shigekuni just flopped downwards, breathing like he was having a heart attack.

" _Nerves are high for both teams here…"_

The crackly scan lines of the TV projected light bursts of symmetry onto Kamons glasses, his beady oval eyes ruining it as they danced through the sight of equilibrium.

The red-capped pitcher on screen rested a shaky arm, before finally pushing it downwards near his legs and cranking it back up, sending the ball flying through the air like a bullet.

"Come on, come on…"

" _The pitch is good, can-OH WHAT A HIT!"_

Tasuku **smashed** his bat against the baseball, any harder and both objects probably would've shattered, sending the orb flying through the sky like a reverse comet, flames beginning to dress the ball due to the sheer power of Tasuku's hit.

" _ **YES! YES!**_ " Kamon yelled, jumping up in excitement. Shigekuni attempted to replicate this enthusiasm but his shouting quickly descended into a coughing fit. Seemingly effortlessly, Tasuku rounded the bases, kicking up dust as the soles of his boots stomped over the rubber with an easy home run in his sihgrs.

" _He's done it! Tasuku Nandaba has packed the finals ticket for the Blue Sox!"_

Kamon began to dance like he'd been the one to round the bases and win the quarter finals, screaming loud enough to shake the house as Canti began to pop small bags of confetti. This did not go unnoticed to Naota, who had kept himself cooped up in his room for a majority of the day.

In attempt to drown out Kamon and Shigekuni's noise, he gently strummed his flying V, letting the cathartic noise fade into the background, in favor of the gentle reverb of the strings. Small buds crumpled in his ears, their white wires leading down into the mobile radio he had resting on his lap.

_One of the guitars never went away after I used them against the robot. It's weird, the more stuff reverts to how it was around here, the more things change as well._

In accordance with his rambling, the sky began to shift, the clouds evaporating and reemerging, weaving through the light.

" _Noata!_ " Kamon swiftly killed the mood, as he stormed into his sons' room, knocking the door of its hinges and sending it flying through his window with the young boy just _barley_ managing to dodge it.

"Uh, what do you want?"

"Everyone's celebrating your brothers big win, can you go get some more chips?"

"Why can't Haruko do it? She's the housekeeper."

"She's also very excited over Tasuku winning."

Naota gritted his teeth. "She doesn't even know him."

"Naota, go get the chips or I'm docking your wage by half." Kamon quickly snatched another door from a different room and placed it in his sons now empty door frame, just so he could slam it shut.

"…I don't work for you." Naota groaned to the sound of his fathers' feet running down the stairs.

_**Ding!** _

_**Beep!** _

_**Fwoosh!** _

Naota indifferently placed the bag of chips in his backpack, quickly zipping it up as he began to walk through the quite Mabase streets.

" _WOAH!_ " A huddle of people all simultaneously called out, eyes twinkling as small flashes of light exploded in the pink sunset sky.

_The Mabase Lights started showing up a few weeks back. Their flickers of…. something, that appear every now and then. It's really not that impressive, you can't even see them at night 'cause they look like stars. For some reason, the people here really like them. Grandad says it reminds him of when he used to watch the fireworks when he was little._

Naota apathetically looked up at the sky, the twinkles that reflected in his eyes bringing forth nothing but slight annoyance at the invasion of light in his retinas.

_That just makes it kind of sadder. There's no way anything like that can compare to a firework. It's just too boring._

Small rocks fell down the slope of the road as Naota took his place on the sidewalk crossing, anticipating the shift of the traffic light. His vision idly drifted from the light itself to his expected destination (the other side of the road)

_**Red.** _

_**Red.** _

_**Red.** _

There was almost no one there, which was kinda to be expected because:

" _WOAH!_ " The group shouted out as another small flash of light radiated through the clouds.

Naota let out a small "tisk" of boredom, before realizing that there was at least one person on the other side of the crossing. His hair color was

_**Red.** _

_**Red.** _

_**Red.** _

Which served in pale contrast to his dark, beige trench coat that was worn over a business suit. His shades echoed the traffic lights shining colors, sending beams of

_**Yellow.** _

_**Yellow.** _

_**Yellow.** _

Through the air, like miniature lasers.

Now that his focus was fully on this guy, Naota realized he couldn't get a proper read on his face, with his brow all furrowed like that…wait, hold on, what was that peeking through the top of his glasses?

Even on a stealth escapade, Amarao couldn't resist wearing those goddamn eyebrows.

Naotas eyes snapped to the traffic light, only to be met with a face full of

_**GREEN.** _

_**GREEN.** _

_**GREEN.** _

Not wasting a second, Naota flipped sideways on his heel and began to run away, the action provoking an outburst from the previously aloof man.

"HEY, KID, GET BACK HERE!"

Needless to say, the advice was not heeded, as the teen took off, the packet of chips shuffling around his pack.

Naota didn't even know where he was going, he just took as many sharp turns around corners as he could manage with dust kicking up behind him, while the Mabase streetways began to start feeling like a piece of MC Esher artwork.

Eventually, feeling his own breath start to catch up with him, Naota slammed his body against a wall, thinning himself out. Slowly, he began to balance his once heavy breathing, standing up straight with resumed posture as he turned the corner to face…

" _ **Naota Nandaba!**_ " The appearance of Amaraos voice caused him to jump back slightly in fright, eyes cartoonishly bulging from his head. The adults turn of phrase clearly _attempted_ to sound cool, but it was undermined completely by both his panting and sweat stains that adorned his suit.

"What do you want?" Naota asked, recovering quickly.

"Remember two years ago, when you hit the baseball out of the sky?" Amaro responded, his pants dying down as his eyes and demeanor became laser focused.

"…Yeah." Naota looked away nonchalantly, acting as if that day hadn't been the best of his life.

"Well, those "Mabase Lights" you're hearing about are small bits of debris dislodging from what we believe is a repeated attack attributed to Medical Mechanica…"

The teens eyes shot upward, gazing over at the small flickers of light that barley managed to pierce through the sky.

"…'reckon you're up for a repeat performance?"

"Maybe."

"Well, that answer better change to a yes soon, or else you'll be left standing in the rubble wondering what happened. No pressure."

Amarao began to walk away, the raised soles of his shoes stomping against the concrete. Naota tried to tell his brain (which was desperately targeting Amarao) not to listen, not to think, as his teeth pressed down on his tongue, the boy getting more jittery by the second.

"…. how long do I have?!" Naota finally exploded, voice shaking the small, enclosed street path with emotion. In response, Amarao turned his head upwards at the Mabase lights, his glasses barley reflecting them at all due to their weakness.

"…I'd say around three weeks. Call us if you need anything."

Casually, the older man flicked his business card at Naota, the slip of cardboard imbedding itself in the brick wall like a shuriken, while the glossy finish over it mirrored some of the natural light back into Naotas eyes.

"See 'ya round, pirate king."

* * *

Naota simply placed the chips on the counter and began to walk to his room, not even acknowledging either of his elders who were in-turn more focused on the chips and TV than him.

The sound of his feet clunking against the stairs created an uneasy rhythm along with Kamon and Shigekuni's chatter. His eyes were firmly cast downward, resting against the wood of the flight of steps. It stayed that way until he reached to grab the doorknob of his room's entrance, only for the cracking sound of the handle brought forth Harukos voice from nowhere.

"Looking real glum, Takkun." She mused, walking over to him and gripping his head, much to Naota's dismay. "You've really got to turn that frown…"

He felt her grasp on his skull tighten, her-cat like features glinting mischievously. "…upside down!"

She sent his head spinning.

Literally.

His head began to rotate upwards like a hamster ball, defying any sense of anatomy or gravity, until Naota managed to grasp his own hands on it, slowing down the revolutions until it began to rest normally on top of his neck.

"Hey, knock it off." He growled to a still smirking Haruko.

"Yeah, yeah…" The girl casually sucked on her index and middle fingers as if they were lollipops, before she ripped them out of her mouth with a loud _**pop**_ , aiming them at Naota as if they were a gun. "Hey, you wanna do some… _fooly cooly_ "

_**Blam!** _

Smoke dispersed from her fingertips as a small, pink bullet shot out a Naota, sailing through the air with what would seem like killing intent.

_**Crack!** _

It landed right next to his head, entrenching itself into the wooden walls as opposed to its target destination.

"Pass." Naota responded, opening his door with a complete disregard for Haruko's presence, who became noticeably stiff, scoffing at him.

"Hmph, What's your problem?"

The boy stopped his movement towards his bed, turning his head to face the girl behind him.

"I think the world's gonna end."

* * *

"Oh man, the worlds gonna end?!"

Gaku screamed it so loud you'd swear he wanted everyone in the school to know, which caused Naotas face to scrunch up.

"Keep it down would ya'?" The boy grimaced, his quiet vocals in clear contrast to his friend's outburst of energy.

_**Flick.** _

The blinds of the classroom flickered in and out as Ninamori's vision of her friends became skewered further and further. White to black. White to black. White to black.

"What did you want to talk to me about Miss. Junko?" She asked, attention switching back to the teacher sat on a desk, eyes filled with what looked like guilt.

"Well…you know the sports festival coming up?" She stammered; voice shaky enough that cartoonish vibrations began to run down her neck.

"Hm."

"Well, on the high jump, one of our best players got injured, you see." Every word brought Junko sliding closer and closer to Ninamori, the younger girl attempting to back away only for her back to hit a wall and leave literally no way to reduce the tension.

"Y-yeah…"

"And you did that amazing one _two years ago_ …" Junkos eyes were now taking up more of Ninamori's field of view than anything else. "So, I'm just thinking, maybe you can sub on to the team. I mean, this looks like it's going to be first one we win in thirty years, _**no pressure or anything**_."

One thought buzzed through Ninamoris mind, gradually throbbing at her head more and more painfully.

_Don't say yes._

_Don't say yes._

_Don't say yes._

"I…maybe…"

Junko shot that shit down real quick. "I'm going to need a yes or no."

_Don't say yes._

_Don't say yes._

_Don't say yes._

"…okay." She caved in and the head-pain only intensified.

"Great! Thank god, I thought- "Junko's voice began to fade to fade away, as Ninamori's surroundings began to blur. Her eyes darted from side to side, almost distorting along with the backgrounds of the world.

The word "dismissed" barley phased her, only giving her an opportunity to run away. Lockers and people all slanted around her as she ran, not really sure where or when she was going. It was like her mind was pulling her forwards, any sense of crevasses and corners nulled in the face of pure adrenaline.

Sun started to shine down on her back. She felt her violet hair begin to warm up, sending strands of heat shooting down to her shoulders. Slightly wet grass slogged beneath her shoes. She still couldn't see.

_**Fwoosh.** _

All the smudging and blur of the world around her ceased, becoming solid in one fixed motion. Her head still hurt like hell, but her vision was regained. She chose not to take advantage of this, still closing her eyes and looking downwards.

"Ah damn it." A harsh whisper woke her up from her daze, as she looked upwards to see Naota gripping at his forehead, a fiery emblem emblazed onto it. His eyes shot up looking at her, as the sun reflected through him like he was the mesh of a window.

Ninamori held hands up to her forehead and felt the outlines of an identical insignia etched onto her. They looked at each other, literally feeling a gravitational pull between their head's symbols.

" _ **I think the world's gonna end."**_

* * *

"I thought you didn't like it spicy commander." Kitsurubami grumbled, as Amarao slurped on the pack noodles he'd picked up from the store.

"Well, after that day, I started living life on the edge. It's just the way I am." The man lamely replied, his assistant ready to blow a blood vessel from frustration. The B.I.I had long since lost any stake in earth, meaning the only personal left to scout it was Amarao and her, Amarao in big fucking quotation marks because the job requirements of them both were a _little_ skewed.

Kitsurubami handled identification, scanning, foreign technologies, printing, inking, writing, note-taking, foreign identification, foreign inking, foreign writing, species exploits and thirty more that were legally in her contract.

Amarao told her she needed to do all of that and sat around eating curry, noodles and bread,

She looked up at the TV screen display, static pulsating into her eyes from the screens that were barley working (it was her job to fix them). Pushing her chair out, Kitsurubami began to make her way over to the fuse box which connected them.

" _ **Hey, knock it off.**_ " Every screen shifted its picture to project Amaraos face, the force of its volume pushing the girl back a bit.

"What the hell are you doing?!" She yelled back to him, face contorting in anger (an effect that was not passed onto Amarao himself)

"It's not static, it's code, I'm descrambling it." He explained, shifting his right hand around on something that looked more like a video game joystick then anything that resembled proper decoding. She did however, realize that the static was wobbling along with the stick's movements (sometimes stuttering out of the screen entirely) so, with a sigh, she returned to her seat.

_**BEEEEP!** _

Amarao yanked his hand his hand to the side hard enough to break his wrist as loud sounds of affirmation began to blare from the screen.

_**BEEEP!** _

He yanked the lever backwards, which in turn threw his whole body backwards, almost as if he was fishing. Kitsurubami began to have actual concern for his health, eyes beginning to widen as she watched him flop around with the stick.

_Is he…_

_**Snap!** _

The image of Amarao veering too far back against the lever and breaking his neck was one that was becoming more and more realistic the more he thrashed.

… _going to die?_

_**BEEEEEEP!** _

Finally, he cracked it into place, clear images breaking onto the screen.

"Woah." Both said simultaneously.

The asteroid that was crashing downwards had to be nearly the size of Mabase itself. Fiery red aura singed through it and compressed the atmosphere around its surface, sending waves of crimson air bursting up its sides.

Amarao's eyebrows wobbled slightly, the fact that this hulking scrap of metal was currently hurtling towards earth giving him a slight sense of existential dread.

"K-Kitsurubami, bring up what it'll look like once it enters the atmosphere."

A few button pushes later, and the image shrunk by a few centimeters _._ Amarao felt one of his eyebrows begin to slide down his face, but he quickly put his palm to it, making sure the adhesive stayed on.

"God almighty."

* * *

_**FWOOSH!** _

Naota's bat hit nothing but air, the wind exploding around his strike. This meant that the pitch Ninamori had thrown sailed past him.

_**Fwoosh!** _

Another pitch, another miss.

_**Fwoosh.** _

Another pitch, another miss.

_**Fwoosh?** _

The wood of the baseball bat came up unheated and empty, the ball crashing into Naota's face instead. The collision with his head sent him flying backwards, hitting the grass hard enough to send small blades of it upwards.

" _FOOF!_ " He coughed; more grass being exhaled in the wake of the collision. Rubbing the back of his head, he sat up to meet Ninamori's stern, afar gaze.

"You're swinging the bat too fast. No wonder it's gonna hit you."

"Maybe you're just pitching too hard." He mumbled back, brushing loose grass out of his hair.

"CANTI!" She cried in response, prompting the robot to throw a pitch outward at Naota, almost sniper-like in execution.

It raced closer to his face, flashing into his eyes.

_Maybe when the chips are down, he's too scared to swing the bat himself._

_**FWOOSH!** _

Despite the power in his swing, Naota completely missed the ball, swinging the bat far too early for even the idea of him hitting it to become reasonable. Silence imbedded itself in the air, as the ball rolled through grassy hills of the park, running down a slope and finally stopping next to the apartment blocks that obscured Ninamori and Naota's view of the horizon.

_**BOOM!** _

It suddenly exploded, discharging fire and smoke up into the air which muddied the white-blue skies. Naota just watched as the flames began to reflect through the air, into his eyes…maybe it was just the refraction, but were his eyes…on fire?

"Better start hitting them, huh?" She said, snapping Naota's replicated reds back to baby blues.

"Yeah, yeah…" He returned to the batter position, holding it out diagonally.

_**WACK!** _

The high jump bar that Canti and Naota had been holding up collapsed, as Ninamori failed to get even close to enough height to clear the jump. The metal of the stand fell downwards onto the ground, discarded like Ninamori herself.

"Ah, _**damn it!**_ " She yelled, a rare display of frustration from her, steam emitting from her forehead, only for it to quickly subsidize as she calmed down.

"Maybe you should try and arc some more." Naota unhelpfully suggested, looking down at his girlfriend.

"If I arc more, I'll break my spine." She replied, standing up from the brittle ground, shoes smudged with green grass stains. Her eyes stared deep at the bar, wondering just how she should handle it. It looked way higher than it ever had before…was she even sure it was the same height?

"Hey, can you move it downwards a bit."

Canti's arm shifted it lower (dragging Naota along with it). His display lit up with a bold, black "?"

"No, maybe a bit higher?"

"Wait, _**Aah!**_ " Naota exclaimed, as Canti's arm began to extend upwards like a measuring tape, the pole somehow staying perfectly horizontal despite Naota now being suspended in the air.

"Ah…too high, put it downwards by two and a half meters."

The arm extended back into its socket, returning a dazed Naota to the ground softly.

"Yes, that's perfect!" She said, excitement meaning it came out slightly too loud. Stepping backwards, she prepared to take another jump, kicking up splashes of green and brown behind her.

Then she realized it...

The pole was the exact same height.

_**WACK!** _

* * *

Naota's room felt cold and clammy. Maybe it was because he was just sitting there, mobile radio and headphones plugged in as he switched through channels, letting the waves vibrate through the speakers.

Every click of the "change station" button left him in the cold for a few seconds before yet another song or news report he didn't want to listen too would emerge to eat up the white noise. After a bout of regular "click" intervals, the sound stopped.

" _When I'm lyin' in my bed at night_

_I don't wanna grow up"_

He paused as the lyrics played, not taken off guard by the song but by his open door.

"Dinners ready." Haruko said, somewhat uncharacteristically somber.

"I'm not hungry." Naota replied, ears partially blocked by the buds that projected the music.

"Come on Takkun, your dad got fast food." Her grin broke out quickly, chartreuse yellow eyes piercing through the unlit room.

"I Told you, I'm not hungry."

He clicked his radio again, the song changing.

" _Yeah yeah, she's the one_

_Yeah yeah, she's the one"_

The imprint of his finger against the button of the radio received attention from Haruko's eyes.

"Oh, mobile radio. Wow, that's _**retro**_."

Naota's vision skewed for a second. He swore everything was moving backwards but then he blinked and it wasn't.

"Figures, small time kids are always going to be fixated by small-time radio. You know you could use Napster, and get any song you want for free right?"

"...didn't they shut down?"

"Then you gotta use limewire." Her eyes flashed green for a split-second.

Naota clicked the button again.

" _Feelin' hot yeah I'm on fire_

_I'm never ever goin' to tire_

_Tonight, it's gonna be alright_

_Chasing the night"_

Naota looked into her eyes, deeply in the way that he was trying to find something there. Orange light began to shine through his blinds, jolting warm waves of nostalgia down his back. The sensation ran up his head, taking a form that was almost solid and creating a liquid-like bubble around his skull.

It felt cozy.

"Last call for dinner." She said, stretching her arm upwards and turning for the door.

Naota's eyes widened.

_**Pop!** _

"I'm not hungry."

She turned back to him, boasting an unreadable expression that landed somewhere between smug and annoyed.

"Suit yourself."

She shut the bedroom entrance, any light that had been bleeding into the room from the house being shut out.

Naota's thumb grazed the radio button again.

" _I don't want to walk around with you"_

* * *

It was some six hours later that Naota awoke, earphones still plugged in due to him having fell asleep listening to the radio. The blinds of his window were barley doing anything to contain the absolute blast of light that was shining through the opening.

Looking to his clock, the bold red numbers red _**5:47AM**_ _._ This discovery almost immediately prompted him to throw the blinds open, only to be met with an intensifying light sensation. His eyes squelched shut as if lemon juice had been poured in them.

" _ **Aaaah!**_ " He screamed, as the raw stinging of his eyes was enough to knock him onto the floor, headphones and radio flopping with him. To make the overwhelming atmospheres that were already invading his senses worst, a sharp twinge of static began to blare through the radio, Naota's arm shooting towards the radio to tweak it to the right station.

" _ **Naota?! Naota?!**_ " Amaraos voice blared through the speaker-to-ear transmitters, only encouraging the young boy to flop onto his front to avoid the light.

"Yeah, what is it?!"

"We are in some seriously deep…" His voice cracked hard enough to send nearly completely shatter Naota's window from the reverb, only to straighten itself out with a fake cough. "…business. The Mabase lights are getting worse."

"How much worse?!" Naota shouted back in through the speaker.

"On a scale of one to ten, I'd say this is a twelve…million."

"Twelve million?!"

"Yep, the things coming down in the next five days. Be ready to swing the bat."

"NO, WAIT, BUT…" His pleas fell on deaf ears as the earphones (along with the radios very being) began to became abstractly jagged and reverberate with the sound of static.

" _ **Aaaaaaaa- "**_

* * *

"You think you'll be able to make it to the sports festival?" Ninamori asked him, eyes obscured by the thick rimmed glasses that had been grown to be required as the Mabase lights intensified. Naota looked at her with a lazy boredom unbecoming of the words he was about to say.

"The big asteroid is probably going to come down on the same day."

"Well maybe you could skip that and come down to watch?" She joked, earning an earnest but scared laugh out of Naota, who lay back against the tiny but spacious building roof they were sitting on, glasses dipping down to his nose.

"Yeah, maybe…" Light reflected messily off his shades, cartoonishly bouncing against each other like beams from a laser pistol. As the sun looked down at him, he noticed its white circular shape almost looked like a baseball.

_Baseball_

"Three strikes, you're outta here _!"_ The ball was thrown, curving past the batter's swing and into a glove, where it rolled around like it was on a rollercoaster before finally nestling in the crevasse.

"Ah, fuckin bullshit." Shigekuni grumbled to himself, basking in the cool shade. The green patch of the field had been tarped over to prevent any loss of gameplay from Mabases favorite past time ™. As expected, this made it impossible to hit home runs.

"Why's it bullshits gramps?" Naota asked, cross-legged in the dirt as opposed to Shigekuni being stretched out on the lawn chair. Shigekuni turned to his grandson in the most "old man" way possible, nearly breaking his neck just from the rotation.

" **We're the Martians."**

"…okay?"

"We used to rule this town, state championship every year and now we can't even get to _**third!**_ "

The old man picked up a previously-read newspaper and tossed it at a lanky player, the paper hitting him as if it was a brick complete with blood and all. Shigekuni leaned back with anger, not really caring about the fact he could've just killed his player and instead waiting for the next one to walk up to the base.

"Come on, come on…" He murmured, as the player assumed the batting position, tension amalgamating in the wooden instrument.

_**CRACK!** _

Like a lightning bolt, the pitcher unleashed the ball, which zoomed right past the swing (its electrified properties zapping the catcher through his glove)

"Strike 1!"

"Alright, _**THAT'S IT!**_ " Shigekuni yelled, running towards the field with a red face. "Give it here!"

He yanked the bat out of the players hands and slapped it into the ground, uprooting the previously pitched ball. Without even dropping said bat, he began to break away in a full-on sprint around the bases, various opposition players attempting (and failing) to tackle him to the ground. It was like he was a magnet and they were metal, as soon Shigekuni was completely obscured from daylight (yet still moving)

Naota was not impressed.

* * *

Two pairs of footsteps walked along the dirt, silence in both of them apparent. Ninamori was nervous about her upcoming jump, while Naota was more focused on the reddening skies.

**Tap,** _Tip,_ _**Tap,** _ _Tip._

_The skies started turning red a few days ago. It made some people mad 'cause they couldn't see the lights anymore. Not sure why you would want to see them anyway, they were so dang bright. I don't kn-_

"Hey."

Ninamori's voice was small and sudden, but it nearly shifted Naota's perception of the world completely. Everything was moving and then everything…stopped.

"Don't swing too fast, okay?" She said, violet hair strangely reflective of the red light in the sky. It took a few seconds for the words to properly reach Naota, as he felt Ninamori's voice echo through his head. Suddenly, he felt the bubble around him appear again.

Light blue, strangely translucent. He closed his eyes, taking in the feeling of it surrounding him before he snapped them open again. The bubble didn't pop.

He smiled back at Ninamroi.

"If I do, you won't know…cause we'll all be dead."

"Yeah, I got it." She replied, her smirk rendering his explanation redundant.

Naota looked upwards at the sky, seeing small flashes of light start to twinkle through even the thick red mist. He grimaced.

"I gotta' go. I'll meet you after, right?" He yelled back at here, beginning to run towards the medical mechanica plant.

"Right!" She replied, waving a hand at him. The boy quickly disappeared around the corner, leaving a noticeable lack of blue in a street that was painted scarlet. Ninamori had not time to focus on that now, however, instead her vision was focused squarely on the sign that read, in big italic letters:

_MABASE SPORTS GYMNASIUM._

The logo looked like it had been designed by an eleven-year old on MS Paint, but its roughness did nothing to calm her fears. Prolonged glances at it led to thoughts about what she had to do, and that lead to heightened anxiety, so instead, she just shut her eyes and took a deep breath…

" _Haah_." She breathed out, only for it to become tangible in the air and blow back into her forehead.

" _ **Aah**_ _._ " She let out a small sound of annoyance as the coolness scraping her N.O channel, steam emitting from it as the blazing ruby symbol again became pronounced.

Sometimes when emotions became overwhelming, you tended to look upwards, because when you saw the sky, it made you think about just how tiny your problems were in the grand scale of everything. Ninamori looked up to the sky, watching the bright lights flash by.

One after another they got brighter and brighter.

_**Brighter and brighter.** _

Her eyes closed and opened and her breath got jagged.

She was in the gymnasium.

"Up next, representing Mabase High, it's Eri Ninamori."

She attempted to take in her surroundings, but knew it was useless. Her beating heart made the crowd look ten times larger than it was, as well as ten times louder (which was superfluous because 10x0 was still 0)

She knew she couldn't and shouldn't focus on anything but the bar in front of her. It looked really, _**really**_ high and she didn't think she was imagining it. Her gaze darted to the side, just for a second, where she saw Junko nervously biting her fingernails, enough so that it almost looked like she was biting the whole finger.

Her view cracked back to the bar, eyes lingering on it. Pain shot through her forehead, acting as the kick she needed to just start running.

 _ **TIP, TIP, TIP, TIP, TIP**_.

Her feet sunk against the plastic wrap of the floor. Hold on, was it throwing off her grip? No, maybe she was just thinking it was throwing off her grip but that meant now it really was throwing off her grip.

She kept her vision on the bar, which was approaching closer and closer. Her head began to heat up, to the point she could feel the steam flying backwards past her face. The presence of metal was apparent to her even if she shut her eyes…it was now or never. Turning her body around she leapt upwards, twisting in an attempt to clear the jump.

The resulting actions almost happened in slow motion. The warmth of her head hit an all-time peak as she looked upwards in the air.

_**FWOOOOOSH!** _

A red beam of energy projected out of the symbol, easily demolishing through the gymnasiums roof. Her eyes widened, not because of the laser beam she'd just shot, but because she felt what was going to happen next.

_**WACK!** _

She hit the poll.

Her eyes rested

She didn't really care.

* * *

_**Zensekai no koshinuke MONKEY** _

_**Mikansei no GAME ni muchuu** _

Naota watched with stone like features as the lights intensified in the sky. At least the view was nice. When you were up there you felt like the king of the world.

He rested his flying V in one hand, while his radio was encased in his hoodie, much like a glove would encase a baseball. Through it, he listened.

" _Up next to bat is Taskun Nandaba, the very man who carried the blue sox to this position."_

_**Beep Beep!** _

Kitsurubami tapped on the screen with complete fear of the satellite that was plummeting towards earth, its grey metal having heated up to a red-like shade of orange.

"It's coming down!" She yelled, as Amarao burst through the door, one of his eyebrows dropping downward off his face.

"Oh shit!" He screamed, although quick to correct himself with a nervous cough. "Oh…that's bad."

Despite the fact that she very well could die in the next few minutes, Kitsurubami still took time to look back at him with a face devoid of any respect. Her attention soon returned to the improve-meteor however, moving its picture to a second screen so she could focus on Naota on the other.

He just stood there, face not exactly reflective of the fact that the fate of everyone he knew was in his hands.

"…oh god, we're so dead." She groaned, face plummeting to her hands.

" _Tasskun misses! That's strike one!"_

Naota's eyes began to act as reflective mirrors as the machine fell downwards towards him, becoming visible at last as it broke through the red tinged horizon. He gritted his teeth and shifted his body into a lax batting stance.

" _The comets are regrouping here; Lucks is taking over at the pitch. He tosses and…_ _ **by god, THAT'S STRIKE TWO**_."

The meteor continued to fall, breaking clouds and dispersing dust around it. Naota began to nervously strum the guitar, as his death got closer and _closer_.

" _Third pitch thrown…and TASSKUN KNOCKS IT OUT OF THE PARK!"_

Naota released a heavy breath…

" _WAIT, IT'S CAUGHT, AND REGROUPED BY GASTIN. THROUGH TO PARKER WHO THROUGHS TO SECOND BASE,_ _ **TASSKUN NANDABA IS OUT!**_ "

…The boy's body relaxed even more with this as his arms began to rest up.

" _Well…well it goes to show that even the greats miss the hit once in a while_."

Suddenly, massive hunks of the satellites metal surface began to dislodge, much to Naota's surprise.

_**BEEP! BEEP!** _

Kitsurubami's eyes widened with confusion as she watched the metal-ball fall downwards.

"Status report sir! The object is…shrinking." She announced, befuddlement still meandering into her tone, although it was soon replaced by frustration as she observed Amarao leaning back against his chair with a smirk.

"All according to plan."

She had never wanted to punch someone as hard as she did now.

" _An excellent show of sportsmanship between the comets and the blue sox…"_

Naota watched as massive hunks of metal flew off the surface of the meteor, the shift of heat between them causing disintegration as they entered the atmosphere. The ball just shrunk and shrunk and shrunk.

After a few seconds of straight flying, it began to circle into orbit, not being much bigger than a regular baseball at this point. Naota straightened up his posture, even an ounce of anxiety not present in him. His eyes stayed steely locked on the ball despite how it began to spiral through the air.

Closer.

_Closer_

_**Closer.** _

_**FWOOSH!** _

Naota swung the guitar, only to come up with nothing but air as the tiny little ball ducked past his swing and dinkily landed on the surface behind him. He felt his heart start to beat in time with the ball's shakes, the small object looking like it was about to explode…

And it did.

Only it was tiny, not even powerful enough to generate fire. Smoke sadly shot out of the destroyed stack of metal, much like a chimney, while Naota took the time to process what had happened.

He wasn't dead.

Which meant he was alive.

Slowly, he reached back towards his radio, the sound it projected having turned into white noise about now. His fingers familiarly grazed the station switcher.

_**Click.** _

_**With the kids sing out the future** _

_**Maybe, kids don't need the masters** _

Haruko's wheels blazed across the side of the clothing iron, as her vespa ran directly upward the metallic slope.

"Maybe when the chips are down, he's too scared to swing the bat himself!" She murmured, as she launched upward to once again help Naota. Landing on the top of it, her pink hair blew in the wind while she swung around, aiming her guitar at…

Absolutely nothing?

"Huh?"

Naota wasn't here. Naota was far, far away.

All that was left of him was the smashed flying V that he'd left there, it's cracked plastic scattered around the base of it like marbles.

Haruko's usual smirk began to shift to a sharp frown, as her sharp teeth connected with her tongue.

"Takkun, what the hell…"

_**Just waiting for the little Busters…** _


End file.
